No. 122 - (Vol.VII) October 1996 Editorial Board We ... - Gady Costeff
No. 122 - (Vol.VII) October 1996 Editorial Board We ... - Gady Costeff
No. 122 - (Vol.VII) October 1996 Editorial Board We ... - Gady Costeff
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<strong>No</strong>. <strong>122</strong> - (<strong>Vol</strong>.<strong>VII</strong>)<br />
<strong>October</strong> <strong>1996</strong><br />
<strong>Editorial</strong> <strong>Board</strong><br />
editors<br />
John Roycroft. 17 New Way Road, London, England KW9 6PL<br />
Ed van de Gevel Binncn de Vcste 36, 38! I PH Amersfoort, The Netherlands<br />
Spotlight-column: J. Fleck. Ncuer Wcg 110, LM7803 Krefcld. Germany<br />
Op ions-column; A Pallier, La Mouzinicrc. 85190 La Gcnctouze, France<br />
Treasurer: J. de Boer. Zevenendcrdrift 40, 1251 RC Larcn, The Netherlands<br />
<strong>We</strong> regret to confirm the following deaths:<br />
t Bruno Breider, Finland - 24vii 1905 - 13iv 1995<br />
t Vratislav Miltner, Czech Republic - 11 vi 1911 - 29ixl994<br />
t John Montgomerie, England - 4ix 1911 - 21 vil995<br />
t Erkki Puhakka, Finland - 27iv 1929 - 7v 1995<br />
t JQri Randviir, Estonia - 28v 1927 - 8viii96<br />
t Allan <strong>We</strong>rle, Sweden - 8ii 1908- 7ix 1994<br />
Contents:<br />
Spotlight:<br />
Opinions:<br />
Diagrams and solutions:<br />
Articles:<br />
Reviews<br />
Snippets<br />
(Including the definitive award of the Hastings Centenary)<br />
(Getting the data right by John Beasley)<br />
XXVI Chervony girnik<br />
Moscow Town 1994<br />
Parenti Jubilee<br />
-Simkhovich Centenary ~ ~—--~-~ -- — — -.,..._ _ -_<br />
"64" thematic<br />
PHENIX 1991-1993<br />
John Selman and Saavedra, putting the story to rest by John Roycroft<br />
884-886<br />
887<br />
887-890<br />
890-891<br />
891-897<br />
897-903<br />
903-904<br />
904-906<br />
906-911<br />
911-919<br />
919-922<br />
Supplement:<br />
*C* The reciprocal zugzwangs in GBR-class 0004.10<br />
923-950<br />
883
SPOTLIGHT<br />
editor: Jtlrgen Fleck<br />
Neuer<strong>We</strong>gllO<br />
D-47803 Krefeld<br />
HASTINGS-100 definitive award<br />
judge: John Roycroft<br />
Before detailing the modifications to the<br />
preliminary award we seize the opportunity to<br />
present a study by the legendary GM who sadly<br />
had to bow out from jointly judging this event.<br />
The annotations are due to Spotlight's editor.<br />
D.Bronstein, "64", xi91, d7g4 0010.23<br />
C2.f4f5f7g7h5 4/4+.<br />
This most excellent study was composed during<br />
convalescence. It solidly bestrides the frontier<br />
dividing the study from the practical game, and as<br />
such will appeal to devotees of both.<br />
I.f6/i gxf6 2.f5 Kf4/ii 3.Ke7 Ke5 4.Kxl7 h4<br />
5.Kg6 h3 6.Bdl/iii Ke4 7.Be2 (for Bfl) h2 8.Ba6<br />
(Bb5 Kd5;) hlQ 9.Bb7+ and lO.Bxhl wins.<br />
l.Ke7 Kxf4 2.Kxf7 h4 3.Ke6 (Kxg7,h3;) h3<br />
4.Ba4 h2 5Bc6 Kg5 6.Ke5 Kg4 7.Bhl Kg5<br />
8Bf3, and now Black must watch his step:<br />
8.... Kh6 9.Kf4 Kh7 10.Kg5 Kh8 ll.Kg6<br />
Kg8 12Bg2 Kf8 13.Bd5, and White wins t<br />
but Black saves himself with 8.... Kh4 9.Kf4<br />
Kh3 10.Kg5 Kg3 U.Bc6 Kh3 12.Kg6 Kg4,<br />
and there is no way for White to make<br />
progress, so it's a positional draw.<br />
This is a clever try! It would be hopeless to play:<br />
2.... h4 3.Ke7 h3 4.Kxf6 h2 5.Be4 Kf4<br />
6.Bc6 Kg4 7Ke5 Kg5 8.f6 Kg6 9Bb7 Kg5<br />
10Be4 Kg4 ll.Kd6 Kg5 12.Ke7 wins.<br />
6.Ba4 Kd5 7.Bdl, neither helps nor hinders - it<br />
merely wastes time.<br />
Definitive award<br />
1. Eliminations. <strong>No</strong>.10206 (V.Kovalenko).<br />
<strong>No</strong>.10214 (V.Kos). <strong>No</strong>.10219 (A.Foguelman).<br />
2.1 Modification. <strong>No</strong>. 10200 (S.Osintsev).<br />
A.Foguelman (Argentina) having cast doubt on<br />
the analysis of 1.... Kh5; the first move (l.Rxf4<br />
Kh5) is now stripped from the solution, which<br />
commences with l.Kf7. The study retains its first<br />
prize. (The composer has had no time to respond.)<br />
2.2 Modification. <strong>No</strong>. 10205 (P.Byway). Spotlight's<br />
editor having cast serious doubt on the<br />
uniqueness of the drawing method, the composer<br />
adds bPe7, with the solution essentially unaltered.<br />
The correction is accepted and the study retains<br />
its 6th prize.<br />
2.3 Elimination. <strong>No</strong>.10206 (V.Kovalenko).<br />
Several analytical flaws have been detected.<br />
2.4 <strong>No</strong>. 10207 to 10212 are each promoted one<br />
place, occupying honourable mentions 1 to 6.<br />
2.5 Elimination. <strong>No</strong>.10214 (V.Kos). The composer<br />
accepts the claim by Spotlight's editor of a<br />
second solution.<br />
2.6 Elimination. <strong>No</strong>.10219 (A.Foguelman). The<br />
composer accepts the demolition proposed by<br />
Spotlight's editor.<br />
2.7 Commendations (definitive).<br />
1st <strong>No</strong>.10213<br />
2nd <strong>No</strong>.10215<br />
3rd <strong>No</strong>.10216<br />
4th <strong>No</strong>.10217<br />
5th <strong>No</strong>.10218<br />
John Roycroft<br />
London<br />
17vi96<br />
Avni<br />
Letzelter<br />
Pye<br />
Vandiest<br />
Fleck<br />
Alexander Hildebrand (Uppsala) informs us that<br />
EG/75.9756 by Jttri Randviir was disqualified<br />
from its 2nd prize in Suomen Shakki 1991-92.<br />
Alexander Hildebrand points out that the diagram<br />
and solution to his EG7 76.9852 do not correspond.<br />
<strong>We</strong> apologise. The diagram is in error,<br />
but not the solution. However, the extended GBR<br />
code version below the diagram is correct! Should<br />
EG dispense with diagrams altogether!<br />
EG 119<br />
p.743, d8b4, A.Troitzky. Harold van der Heijden<br />
draws attention to the many versions (corrections)<br />
of this study, from which only one seems<br />
to be sound: A.Troitzky, Deutsche Schachzeitung<br />
ixl906, b8a4 0040.12 hlbl.d6b3d7 3/4=, l.Bc6+<br />
Ka3 (1.... Ka5 2.Bxd7 b2 3.Be6) 2.Bxd7 b2 3.Ba4<br />
Bf5 4.Bc2 Bxc2 5.d7 blQ+ 6.Kc7.<br />
p.748, a2a7, A.Troitzky. Harold van der Heijden<br />
points out that the simple correction of adding a<br />
wPa4 was suggested by Michel (source unknown).<br />
EG 120<br />
Alexander Hildebrand kindly informs us that none<br />
of the studies by the late Helmuth Steniczka<br />
(Vienna) in EG 120 was in fact original to EG.<br />
The all-Scandinavian places of first publication<br />
were:<br />
EG/20.10194 Springaren 37/1989 corrected<br />
884
40/1990 with bPb7 added<br />
10195 Tidskriftfdr Schack 1/1990<br />
10196 Springaren 40/1990<br />
10197 Springaren 50/1992 (but with a different<br />
setting). These sources were missing from the<br />
composer's manuscript which we were privileged<br />
to see. (AJR)<br />
<strong>No</strong>. 10198, H.Steniczka. The solution and notes<br />
are taken, with minor modifications, from the<br />
composer's, which he supplied in these two<br />
instances in English.<br />
l.bSd4 Bh5/i 2.Rg2+ Ke3 3.Re2+/ii Kf4 4.Rf2/iii<br />
Bxf3+/iv 5.Kgl/v Se3 6.Rxf3+/vi Ke4 7Kf2<br />
Sg4+ (Sdl+;Ke2) 8.Kg3 Se5 9.Rf4+ wins.<br />
1.... c5 2.Rg2+ Ke3 3.Re2+.<br />
An important component of the black counterplay<br />
arises after 3.Rg3 Bxf3+. <strong>No</strong>w White is<br />
forced to capture the bishop. 4.Sxf3 Kf2<br />
5.Kh2 (Rh3,Sf4;) Se3 6.Kh3/vii Sfl (Sf5<br />
Rg5) 7.Rgl Se3 8.Rg3 Sfl, with perpetual<br />
pursuit of the white pieces.<br />
4.Kg2 Bxf3+ 5.SxO Se3+ 6.Kf2 Sg4+ 7.Kg2<br />
Se3+ draw. If 4.Kgl c5, and either 5.Se6+<br />
Kg3 6Rg2+ Kxf3 7.Rg5 Bg4, or 5Re5 Bxf3<br />
6.Sxf3 Se3 7.Kf2 Sg4+ drawing. By exchanging<br />
the positions of bK and wR a position<br />
is created with which we are already<br />
familiar. Therefore the following moves are<br />
a mirror image of the aforesaid black<br />
counterplay.<br />
4.... c5 5.Sel + Ke3 6.Rf5 cxd4 7.Sg2+ Ke4<br />
8.Rxh5 d3 9.Rh4+ Ke5 lO.Sel Sf4 ll.Kgl<br />
Ke4 12.Sxd3 wins.<br />
Black's counterplay would succeed after 5.Sxf3<br />
Kg3 6.Kgl (Rfl,Se3;) Sf4, and if 7.Kfl Sh3<br />
(Sd3 Rd2) 8.Rh2 Sf4 9.Rf2 Sh3, with the<br />
thematic (set theme) perpetual attack, or<br />
7Rfl Sh3+ 8.Khl Sf2+ perpetual check, or<br />
7.Sg5 Kg4 draw.<br />
6.Sxf3 Sg4 7.Rfl Se3 draw,<br />
i) 6.Sd2 Ke2 draw. Or 6.Rh3 Sfl+ 7.Khl Sg3+<br />
with perpetual check.<br />
<strong>No</strong>. 10199, H.Steniczka. l.Qb3/i a6/ii 2.Qf7/iii<br />
Kdl/iv 3.Qc4/v Qel/vi 4.Sf2+ Kd2 5Qd5+<br />
Ke3/vii 6.Qd3+ Kf4 7.Qf3+ Kg5 (Ke5;Sd3+)<br />
8Se4+ Kg6(Kh6) 9.Qf6+ Kh7 10.Sg5+, or<br />
The thematic try l.Qf7 is met by 1.... Kdl 2.Qc4<br />
a6.<br />
1.... Ke2 2.Qf3+. Or 1.... Qd8 2.Qc3+ Kdl 3.Kfl<br />
and 4.Sf2+. 2.Qc3+ or 2.Qe3+ will meet<br />
other moves by the black queen,<br />
i) Threatening 3.Qfl mate. <strong>No</strong>t 2.Qc4 Kdl,<br />
and the crucial (thematic) position has arisen<br />
but with White to move. <strong>No</strong> better for White<br />
is 2.Qb2 Qd5.<br />
2.... Ke2 3.Qf3+. Or 2.... Qb5 3.QO+.<br />
ii) <strong>No</strong>w we have the forcing position with<br />
Black to move.<br />
3.... Qa3 4.Sc3+ Kc2 5Sb5+, or 3.... Qd8 4.Qb3+<br />
Kcl/viii 5.Qc3+ Kdl 6.Kfl, or 3.... Qb5<br />
4.Sc3+, or 3.... Kel 4.Qfl mate, with other<br />
moves of bQ being met by 4.Qd3+ Kcl<br />
5.Qd2+ Kbl 6Sc3+.<br />
5... Kcl 6.Sd3+. Or 5.... Kc2 6.Qa2+ Kc3<br />
7.Qa5+. Or 5.... Kc3 6.Qa5+.<br />
iii) Or 4.... Ke2 5 Qf3+. Or 4.... Kel 5.Qc3+<br />
Kdl 6.Kfl.<br />
With his first move of l.Qb3, White forces Black<br />
to play the tempo move I...a6, at a moment<br />
wrong for him, and only then does the manoeuvre<br />
2.Qf7, and 3.Qc4, reach the crucial zugzwang<br />
position with Black to move.<br />
<strong>No</strong>. 10263, D.Gurgenidze / V.Neidze. According<br />
to Harold van der Heijden the dual (cf. Spotlight<br />
EG 120) is explained by a diagram error; the<br />
white rook should be on e2 instead of h2.<br />
EG 121<br />
<strong>No</strong>. 10276, D.Godes. A dual: according to Marco<br />
Campioli 2.Kb4 Rxc5 3.e4+ Kd6 4.Ba3 wins, too.<br />
<strong>No</strong>. 10277, V.Kovalenko. In Kasparyan's book<br />
"Tainy Etyudista" (1984) we read on page 278:<br />
"... no solution after 1.... Rf3!. This is corrected<br />
by the rearrangement of the white bishops to d3<br />
and g5. 4 \ Harold van der Heijden attributes this<br />
correction to Kovalenko himself.<br />
<strong>No</strong>. 10279, UShilkov. Unsound: both 4.Sc3 and<br />
4.Sf4 (preventing ... Sd5 and threatening 5.Bg2)<br />
win easily, one line is 4.Sf4 e5 5.Sd5 Sxd5<br />
6Be6+ Ke8 7.Bxd5. Harold van der Heijden<br />
draws attention to EG 113.9463, which looks like<br />
a correction (after 26 years!).<br />
<strong>No</strong>. 10286, V.Dolgov / V.Kolpakov. "This is a<br />
correction of a study published in Heureka#23<br />
1992 (where the white bishop h4 is at gl). Apparently<br />
the solution (or the cook) runs: l.Bd4+<br />
Ka2 2.Be6+ Ka3 3.Bc5+ Ka4 4.Bd7+ Ka5 5.Ra7<br />
mate. The nice zwickmUhle of #10286 cooks this<br />
study." (Harold van der Heijden).<br />
<strong>No</strong>. 10291, V.PriguDOV. A dual win: 9.Ra7 Kd8<br />
(9.... Qc4+ 10.Bd5; or 9.... Kffi 10.Ra8+ Kg7<br />
ll.Sf5+ and 12.Sxd4+) 10.Sc6+ Kc8 ll.Bf5 Qf3<br />
12.Kd6+ Qxf5 13.Rc7 mate (Marco Campioli).<br />
<strong>No</strong>. 10299, N.Kralin / An.Kusnetzov. Again<br />
Marco Campioli was on the alert: 6.Rb2+ Kxhl<br />
7.Rb8 wins, too. This also demolishes EG<br />
50.3218 which is almost identical (thanks, HvdH).<br />
<strong>No</strong>. 10310, K.Presnyakov. <strong>No</strong> solution: 4.... Ne3<br />
followed by 5.... eSd5+ wins on material (Marco<br />
Campioli).<br />
<strong>No</strong>. 10312, N.Ryabinin. The award states that<br />
this is a correction of a study from "64" 1988,<br />
885
probably the winner of the first prize (102.8096).<br />
Is anything wrong with it<br />
<strong>No</strong>. 10316, V.Kovalenko. Harold van der Heijden<br />
aptly remarks: "The EG-introduction of this tourney<br />
states: "The entries were tested". Great! But<br />
one wonders by what (or whom). Anyway this<br />
study has only one correct line (2.... Rbl), after<br />
2.... Re6 3.Kd7 Ra6 4.f7 does win. Instead of the<br />
stupid 8.Kg5 (allowing the rook capture with<br />
check), 8.Kf5 is the easily winning move.". Please<br />
compare this to the annotations to <strong>No</strong> 9940 in<br />
Spotlight EG 117.<br />
<strong>No</strong>. 10323, I.Morozov. For once the database<br />
gives us a crystal clear refutation: 9.... Kf2<br />
10.Kb8 Ke3 Il.e5 Kd4 12.e6 Ke5 13.e7 Ke6<br />
draw.<br />
<strong>No</strong>. 10330, V.Anufriev. <strong>We</strong> have seen this<br />
before: EG 115.9761.<br />
<strong>No</strong>. 10334, P.Arestov. <strong>No</strong> win: 5.... Sd7 6.Sd8+<br />
Kg8 7.Sc6 Sf6 8.Se7+ Kf7 9.Sf5 Sd7 (almost<br />
every other legal move is dealt with in note iii),<br />
and there is no way to make progess: 10.Kh7<br />
Sf8+.<br />
<strong>No</strong>. 10335, V.Kalyagin. <strong>No</strong> solution: 1.... Sf4<br />
2.d6 Sd5 3.Kb7 (3.d7 Sb6+) Sf6 with a comfortable<br />
draw.<br />
<strong>No</strong>. 10338, V.Kichigin. <strong>No</strong> solution, Black draws<br />
by 2.... Rf6. <strong>No</strong>w 3.Ka5 is given, but this even<br />
loses to 3.... Kc5 4.e7 (else ... Kd6) Rxf7 5.e8Q<br />
Ra7 mate. Of course all this is long known! The<br />
study can be corrected by shifting the position<br />
one square to the right, but this is S.Tarrasch,<br />
1912 (source unknown to us).<br />
<strong>No</strong>. 10339, V.Kolpakov. The database points out<br />
duals galore:<br />
l.Bb5 or l.Bb3 Qcl+ 2.Bc2 both mate quickly. It<br />
really does not make much sense to drive the<br />
black king out of the corner.<br />
l.Qg2+ Ka7 2.Qf2+ Ka6 3.Bc6 shortens the<br />
solution by two moves in a most obvious way.<br />
3Be4 wins: 3.... Qcl+ (3.... Qb3 4.Bd3+) 4.Bc2<br />
Kb5 5Qb6+ Kc4 6.Qb3+ Kd4 7 Qd3+ Kc5<br />
(7.... Ke5 8.Qd6 mate) 8.Qc3+.<br />
<strong>No</strong>. 10340, V.Kalyagin. <strong>No</strong> solution, the database<br />
plays 5.... Qe3 and wins in farther 60 moves<br />
(please spare me to give a sample line). As we<br />
have emphasized before: In the GBR class<br />
4000.10 the f-pawn usually wins when the defending<br />
king is far off.<br />
<strong>No</strong>. 10347, P.Rossi. The solution should surely<br />
read 5.... Qb3 6.Qa2 Qb5 7 Qa4 Qb2 8.Qal and<br />
positional draw by perpetual stalemate. <strong>No</strong>t new<br />
(cf. EG 62.4143), but a very elegant setting.<br />
<strong>No</strong>. 10368, D.Gurgenidze / V.Kalandadze. This<br />
is more or less identical with the "STUDY OF<br />
THE YEAR 1990" (cf. EG 112 p 436 and EG<br />
113.9496). Did the award offer an explanation for<br />
this<br />
<strong>No</strong>. 10378, A.Selivanov. Harold van der Heijden<br />
points out: "Exactly the same study was published<br />
earlier by A.Konstantinov in Diagrammes#2S65 in<br />
1992. But curiously this Konstantinov plagiated a<br />
twin study of Selivanov (and again another case is<br />
known to me)." Incredible!<br />
Grin article, 866-8. Harold van der Heijden notes<br />
that "... some these positions were already used in<br />
studies, a bit surprisingly also by the grand old<br />
master himself." and quotes EG 85.6174 (Gl) and<br />
EG 114.9605 (G3). Here are some more<br />
examples:<br />
H.Aloni, Shakhmaty v SSSR 1960, 2nd comm.,<br />
a5al 0023.13 a3e4d2.c2b3c3d4 4/5=, l.Bh7 b2<br />
2.Bxb2+ cxb2 3.c3 dxc3 4.Kb4 blQ+ 5.Bxbl<br />
Sxbl 6.Kb3 draw (G10). Please note the uniqueness<br />
of the first move: l.Bd3/Bg6 fail to 3....<br />
Sc4+ 4.KM Se5 5.Bc2 d3, while l.Bf5 loses to<br />
3.... Sc4+ 4.Kb4 Se3 5.Be4 Sd5+.<br />
E.Pogosjanz, Bulletin ZSK SSSR viiil976, g6h8<br />
3123.13 h4d2b6g8hl.g4d5e6h2 5/6=, 1.Kf7 Qg3<br />
2.Bd8 Qf4+ 3.Bf6+ Qxf6+ 4.Kxf6 SO 5.Rxd5<br />
Sxg4+ 6.Kg6 hlQ 7.Rh5+ Qxh5+ 8.Kxh5 Sf6+<br />
9.Kg5 Sxg8 10.Kg6z draw (Gl).<br />
p.866, G 2, A.Grin. Simply 1.... g5 wins for<br />
Black (Marco Campioli).<br />
p.866, G4, A.Grin. From AJR we received the<br />
following note: "The correct source title ... is<br />
Apprenti Sorrier, not L'Apprenti Sorcier. Ken<br />
Macdonald of Etobickoke (Ontario, Canada) puts<br />
us right on this, with the information that the<br />
magazine was a problem-orientated publication<br />
privately produced by Alain J. Godbout of<br />
Gatineau (Quebec, Canada). 8 issues appeared<br />
between vi!991 and vi!993."<br />
p.870, V.Halberstadt bKe6 is missing and the<br />
bSf3 should be white (thanks, HvdH).<br />
886
OPINIONS<br />
editor: Alain Pallier<br />
La Mouziniere<br />
85190 La Genetouze<br />
"All views expressed are those of the originators<br />
of those views and should not be attributed to any<br />
of EG's editors."<br />
Getting the data right<br />
There has recently been a certain amount of<br />
public criticism of errors (in particular, of sourecs<br />
incorrectly stated) in standard study collections<br />
and databases: by Alain Pallier in EBUR <strong>1996</strong>/1,<br />
by John Roycroft in EG 121, and so on. These<br />
particular criticisms applied to the Kasparyan<br />
anthologies, to the latest Akobian anthology, and<br />
to parts of the Van der Heijden database, but I am<br />
sure that other collections of similar size would<br />
disclose similar errors if subjected to independent<br />
scrutiny.<br />
Elementary calculations shows that such errors are<br />
to be expected. It is the general experience of<br />
organizations which have tried to establish<br />
reliable reference databases on computer that the<br />
total manpower needed to enter the information,<br />
have it checked, correct the errors, check the<br />
corrections, deal with any corrections that have<br />
been overlooked or made wrongly, and organize<br />
the whole thing, amounts between one and two<br />
man-hours per 1000 characters of data. This is an<br />
unpleasantly large amount of effort, which has<br />
caused more than one ambitious project to run<br />
hopelessly over budget or to be abondoned, and if<br />
we apply it to the establishment of a comprehensive<br />
and reliable endgame study database we find<br />
that it amounts to far more than even the most<br />
dedicated single spare-time enthusiast can be<br />
expected to devote to the task.<br />
Fortunately, the advent of computers makes it<br />
easier to share the work around, and in particular<br />
to send copies for checking and correction by<br />
people who have access to primary sources. In<br />
due course, therefore, we can expect the accuracy<br />
at least of the Van der Heijden database gradually<br />
to be refined to the point where it is to all intents<br />
and purposes completely reliable. To criticize it<br />
for errors at its present stage of development,<br />
however necessary this might be as a warning to<br />
prospective users, is merely to acknowledge a law<br />
of nature long since discovered within the computing<br />
profession.<br />
John Beasley<br />
DIAGRAMS AND SOLUTIONS<br />
editor: John Roycroft<br />
17 New Way Road<br />
NW9 6PL London<br />
XXVI Chervony girnik<br />
It is unclear whether this formal tourney was<br />
national or international, but technically it was<br />
international. Provisional award published in the<br />
Chervony girnik newspaper 7v96. Judged by<br />
A.Zinchuk (Kiev).<br />
43 entries received, 14 published in the<br />
provisional award. The confirmation period was 3<br />
months.<br />
Text of award (by judge, organiser): "....28 were<br />
eliminated for assorted reasons, a rejection rate of<br />
65% ... each competitor is being informed of<br />
detected inaccuracies... ".<br />
Analytical comment added by: DB, translation<br />
assistance from: Ukrainian from a rusty Alyona.<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10383 V.VIasenko (Kharkov region, Ukraine)<br />
1st prize XXVI Chervony girnik<br />
f4g7 0001.13 3/4<br />
Win<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10383 V.VIasenko I.e7 C 2.Sf5+ Kf6 3.e8S+<br />
Ke6 4eSg7+ Kd7 5.Sxg3 f5 6.Sfl Kd6 7.Se3<br />
Kc5 8.Se6+ Kb4 9.Sg5 Kc3 10.Sh3 Kd2 ll.Sxf2<br />
Ke2 12Sh3 wins.<br />
"Would you prefer to play the white side or the<br />
black One is reminded of Alekhine's blindfold<br />
performance game in which his opponent, a German<br />
general, resigned three times!" [AJR: Who<br />
can help track down this anecdotal reference<br />
Edward Winter Ken Whyld Judge A.Zinchuk<br />
himself]<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10384 V.Kondratev and Yu.Solovyov l.Sgl+<br />
Kg4 2.Sf6+ Kh4 3Sxe4 hlQ 4.Kfl c6 5.d5 cxd5<br />
6.Sf2 Qe4 7.Sxe4 wins.<br />
"Simply brilliant. The age of classicism lives on!"<br />
887
<strong>No</strong> 10384 V.Kondratev and Yu.Solovyov<br />
(Gavrilov posad, Russia)<br />
2nd prize XXVI Chervony girnik<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10386 A.Bezgodkov and V.Samilo l.Bh5 e2<br />
2.Bxe2 Ke8 3.Ka7/i Bh3 4Bb5+ Bd7 5.Kb6 Bxb5<br />
6.Kxb5 Kd7 7Kc5 wins.<br />
i) 3Kb8 Kd8 4.Bf3 Bh3 draw.<br />
"The judge has combined the composers' work,<br />
submitted as inverted 'twins', into one study."<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10387 V.VIasenko<br />
special prize XXVI Chervony girnik<br />
f2h3 0002.23 5/4<br />
Win<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10385 Leonid Topko (Krivoi Rog, Ukraine)<br />
3rd prize XXVI Chervony girnik<br />
h4h7 0116.01 3/4<br />
Win<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10387 V.VIasenko l.Bg6+ Kh6 2.Be4 Sc5<br />
3.Bc2 alS 4.Bbl aSb3 5.Rf2 Sd7 6.Rf7 bSc5<br />
7.Bc2 gSe6 8Rh7 mate.<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10388 I.Bondar (Gantsevichi, Belarus)<br />
1st honourable mention XXVI Chervony girnik<br />
e2hl 0402.21 6/3<br />
Win<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10385 Leonid Topko l.Sc3 Rcl 2.Sxa2 Rxc2+<br />
3.Kfl Rxg2 4.Rh8+ Rh2 5.Sh7 Rxa2 6.Sg5+ Rh2<br />
7Sh3 R- 8.SO mate.<br />
"The mating finale may look straightforward, but<br />
imagine it in a practical game, where it would<br />
earn a prize for beauty."<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10386 A.Bezgodkov and V.Samilo (Kharkov,<br />
Ukraine)<br />
4th prize XXVI Chervony girnik<br />
e6h5 0354.18 5/12<br />
Win<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10388 I.Bondar l.BdR Kh6 2.Sg5 Rf2 3.Bcl<br />
Rf6+ 4.Ke7 Bc5+ 5.Ke8 Re6+ 6.Sxe6+ g5 7.Kf7<br />
Be7 8.Bb2 g4 9.Bxg4 Bf6 10.Bcl+ g5 ll.Ba3<br />
alQ 12.Bf8+ Bg7 13.Sxg7 Qfl+ 14.Sf5 mate.<br />
"The author has conjured up a romantic miracle."<br />
a8ft 0040.21 4/3<br />
Win<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10389 E.Markov It seems that wPh6 is a late<br />
addition to the diagram.<br />
1 f8Q+ Kxffi 2.Kf6 blQ 3.h7 Qal+ 4.Se5 Qxe5+<br />
5.Kxe5 Kg7 6.f6+ Kxh7 7.f7 Sf3+ 8.Kf6 Se5<br />
9.Kxe5 a2 10.Bd4 alQ ll.Bxal Kg7 12.Ke6+<br />
Kf8 13.Bg7+ Kxg7 14.Ke7 wins.<br />
"The combat is ultra-sharp, but White sees just<br />
one step farther ahead."<br />
888
<strong>No</strong> 10389 E.Markov (Saratov, Russia)<br />
2nd honourable mention XXVI Chervony gimik<br />
3.Rb5 Rc5 4Rxc5 Bxc5 5.Rh4 Bd6 6Re4 Sxe4<br />
7.Kh7 Kf7 8.Kh6 Bf4+ 9.Kh5 Sf2 10.Kh4 Kg6<br />
H.Sh2Bxh2draw.<br />
"This entertained everybody, not just the judges -<br />
long live humour, in chess as in music!"<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10392 Yu.Kuruoglu<br />
1 st commendation XXVI Chervony girnik<br />
e5e7 0014.32 6/4<br />
Win<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10390 Yu.Kuruoglu (Makeevka, Russia)<br />
3rd honourable mention XXVI Chervony girnik<br />
d4e7 0035.22 5/5<br />
Draw<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10392 Yu.Kuruoglu l.Sel hlQ 2SxhI Bxhl<br />
3.f3 Sxh6 4.Ke3 Sf5+ 5.Kf2 h5 6.Kgl Sg3 7.Kh2<br />
h4 8.Kh3 Sf5 9.Kh2 Sg3 10.Kh3 draw.<br />
"Lively play in White's favour ends in a<br />
positional draw."<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10393 Yu.Kuruoglu<br />
2nd commendation XXVI Chervony girnik<br />
hlg5 0341.11 4/4<br />
Draw<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10390 Yu.Kuruoglu l.Se5 gxf3 2.Bxf3 Bxf3+<br />
3.Kh2 Rg2+ 4.Khl Rf2+ 5.Kgl Rg2+ 6.Khl<br />
Rg3+ 7.Kh2 Kh4 8.Sg6+ Kg4 9.Se5+ Kf4<br />
10.Sd3+Kg4 H.Se5+draw.<br />
"Very precise play finishes up with a white knight<br />
successfully holding the black rook and bishop at<br />
bay."<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10391 E.Markov<br />
special hon. men. XXVI Chervony gimik<br />
h8f7 0535.00 5/4<br />
Draw<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10391 E.Markov l.Sd6+ Bxd6 2.Rb7+ Kf8<br />
a6b3 0451.01 5/4<br />
Win<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10393 Yu.Kuruoglu I.Be5 Rg6 2.Bxb2 Rxc6+<br />
3.Kb5 Rc2 4.Rh3, and<br />
Bxb2 5.Scl mate, or<br />
Rxb2 5.Sb4 mate.<br />
"This sprint would have been placed higher were<br />
it not for the sacrifice of wBc6, doomed like the<br />
Christmas goose."<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10394 S.Abramenko I.a7 Sb6 2.Kxb6 Bc5+<br />
3.Ka6 Bxa7 4.e7 Rf6+ 5.Kb7 Rxf7 6.Ka8 Rxe7<br />
stalemate.<br />
"Very interesting play, but the stalemate would<br />
benefit from greater economy."<br />
889
<strong>No</strong> 10394 S.Abramenko (<strong>Vol</strong>gograd region, Russia)<br />
3rd commendation XXVI Chervony gimik<br />
zugzwang, or<br />
fxe6 2.g4 e5 3.dxe6 Kb3 4.Kbl Kc4 5.d6 exd6<br />
6.e6 dxe6 7.g5 Kd5 8.g6 wins,<br />
i) David Blundell: 8.Ka2, is quickest.<br />
".... The study doubtless has theoretical value, but,<br />
sad to say, the pawn ending fails to include a<br />
'full' zugzwang. Had it done so it would have<br />
gone right to the top."<br />
b7a4 0343.32 5/6<br />
<strong>No</strong> 1039S O.Kovbas (Kiev) and l.Bondar<br />
4th commendation XXVI Chervony gimik<br />
Draw<br />
Moscow Town, 1994<br />
This formal tourney was judged by<br />
An.G.Kuznetsov. AJR received the provisional<br />
award as a copy of Shakhmatnaya kompozitsia 12<br />
(1995) from Vladimirov by hand of Vereschagin<br />
5vi96. 6 entries were published in the provisional<br />
award. <strong>No</strong> confirmation period was mentioned. In<br />
this traditional tourney ho more than 10 men are<br />
allowed in the (study) diagram. There was no<br />
studies event in the year 1993.<br />
Apparently there was no definitive award,<br />
publication at all being a fait accompli.<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10397 B.Gusev<br />
1st prize Moscow Town, 1994<br />
d5a7 0013.22 4/4<br />
Draw<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10395 O.Kovbas (Kiev) and l.Bondar I.b6+<br />
Kxb6 2.a7 Kxa7 3.Bxd7 f2 4.Bb5 Kb6 5.Bfl<br />
Se3+ 6.Ke4 Sxfl 7.Kf3 draw.<br />
"The introduction is unorthodox."<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10396 I.Yarmonov (Mariupol, Ukraine)<br />
special commendation XXVI Chervony gimik<br />
cla4 0000.44 5/5<br />
Win<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10396 l.Yarmonov I.e6, with:<br />
dxe6 2dxe6 fxe€ 3.g4 e5 4dxe5 Kb3 5.Kbl Kc4<br />
6.g5 Kd5 7.g6 Ke6 8.K-/i, and White wins by<br />
ble3 0311.11 4/3<br />
Win<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10397 B.Gusev I.b7 Rd8 2Sf7 Rg8 3.Bg4<br />
Rb8 4.Sd8 Ke4 5.Be6 a5 6.Kcl/i a4 7.Kc2 a3<br />
8.Kb3 Rxd8 9.Bc8 Rdl 10.Ka2 Rd2+ ll.Kxa3<br />
Rd3+ 12.Kb2 wins.<br />
i) The study's point: after White's move 7 Black<br />
falls into zugzwang.<br />
"Subtle and precise play by both sides, with a<br />
fresh reci-zug find."<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10398 V.Zholgov <strong>We</strong> start with another<br />
recizug. l.Kc7. with:<br />
Qg8 2.Qf3+ Kgl 3.Qd1 + Kf2(Kh2) 4.Sg4+ Kg3<br />
5.Qel+ Kh3 6.Qhl+ Kg3 7.Qh2+ Kf3 8.QO+<br />
Ke4 9.Sf6+, or<br />
a6(a5) 2.Sg4 Qg2 3.Qel+ Qgl 4.Qe4+ Qg2<br />
5.Qh7+ Kgl 6Qbl+ Qfl 7.Qb6+/i Khl 8Qh6+<br />
Kg2 9.Se3+and lO.Sxfl.<br />
i) Possible only because the a7 pawn was induced<br />
to move. "Two known manoeuvres nicely combined.<br />
Both lines end in forks, and the first move<br />
890
is unexpected."<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10398 V.Zholgov<br />
2nd prize Moscow Town, 1994<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10400 V.Kalyagin and L.Mitrofanov l.Rd7+<br />
Kb6 2.Re7 O 3.Bd3 g3 4.Bxe2 g2 5.Bxf3 glQ+<br />
6.Ka2 Qf2+ 7.Be2 Qf5 8.Kb3 Qbl + 9.Ka3(Kc3)<br />
Qcl+ 10 Kb3 draw.<br />
David Blundell: see EG120.10188 for an earlier<br />
version, unsound.<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10401 A.Styopochkin<br />
commendation Moscow Town, 1994<br />
d7hl 4001.01 3/3<br />
Win<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10399 V.Lovtsov<br />
1st honourable mention Moscow Town, 1994<br />
h8bl 0431.11 4/4<br />
Draw<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10401 A.Styopochkin l.Se4 Bb2+ 2.Kh7<br />
Rh6+ 3.Kxh6 Bcl + 4.Kh5 flQ 5.Sd2+ Bxd2<br />
6.Rgl Qxgl stalemate.<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10402 S Radchenko<br />
commendation Moscow Town, 1994<br />
c6b2 0341.21 5/4<br />
Draw<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10399 V.Lovtsov I.d7 Rxg6+ 2.Kd5, with:<br />
Bf6 3.Ba5 Rg8 4.Ke6 Bh4 5.Sxb3 Kxb3 6.d8Q<br />
Bxd8 7.Kf7 Rh8 8.Kg7 Re8 9.Kf7 Re7+ 10.Kf8<br />
Rd7 ll.Ke8 drawn, or<br />
Bb6 3.Sxb3 Kxb3 4.Be7 Rg8 5.Kc6 Ba5 6.Kb5<br />
Ra8 7.Kc6 Rb8 8.Bd6 Rb6+ 9.Kc5 Ra6 10.Be7<br />
Ra8 ll.Kc6 Kc4 12.d8Q Bxd8 13Kb7 draw.<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10400 V.Kalyagin and L.Mitrofanov<br />
2nd honourable mention Moscow Town, 1994<br />
e7h8 0114.03 4/5<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10402 S.Radchenko IKfiB b2 2.Bf6<br />
3.Rh4+ Qh7 4.Sh6, with:<br />
Sd6 5.Sf7+ Sxf7 6.Bxg7 mate, or<br />
gxf6 5.Sf7 mate, or<br />
Qxh6 5.Rxh6 mate.<br />
Win<br />
blQ<br />
ala7 0110.03 3/4<br />
Draw<br />
Parenti Jubilee<br />
This formal international tourney, also known as<br />
Parenti-90 was published in Ajedrez de Estilo.<br />
Judges were Oscar J.Carlsson, Alberto Foguelman<br />
and Zoilo R.Caputto. The provisional award was<br />
published in a brochure, received by AJR 25vii96<br />
as a 28-page stapled printout dated May <strong>1996</strong>. 52<br />
entries by 46 composers from 23 countries, 17<br />
published (in the provisional award). The confir-<br />
891
mation period was 90 days.<br />
"The organizers and judges take pleasure in emphasizing<br />
the large number of contributions<br />
received from highly qualified composers from all<br />
over the world. Most of these contributions are<br />
undoubtedly first class and they give this tourney<br />
the distinction that was aimed at." As stated in<br />
Ajedrez de Estilo 270/75 (vi-viii95) for practical<br />
reasons and so as to be able to publish the award<br />
of this international tourney more quickly, it has<br />
been decided to make it a formal competition.<br />
Consequently, none of the studies we received<br />
were published before this Provisional Award.<br />
This change to the regulations will not be to the<br />
disadvantage of composers, as unsuccessful entries<br />
will not be published. Besides, the the judges<br />
emphasize the increase in the number of honoured<br />
studies to: 6 prizes, 6 honourable mentions, 3<br />
commendations."<br />
"The quality was very good, despite faults identified<br />
in 13 entries. The judges were in perfect<br />
accord, supplying comments on each study "<br />
Translation assistance from: Oscar Carissoii<br />
"The first works of Luis Parenti, born 25vil904<br />
in Buenos Aires, appeared in the 1940s. He<br />
returned to composing after an absence of 30<br />
years, following a visit to his friend the late Jose*<br />
Mugnos. There he met Oscar Carlsson, with<br />
whom he has composed joint studies. Aged 92, he<br />
continues to take part in tourneys."<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10403 Luis Parenti<br />
El Ajedrez Americano, 1942<br />
ii) 2.Se5 Bxa5 3.Bb5+ KflB draw,<br />
iii) 6.S5c4+ Kxb5 7.Sa3+ Kb4 8.Sxc2+ Kb3<br />
draw.<br />
iv) This is zugzwang. a5 9.Sa3+ and 10.Sxa4<br />
wins.<br />
"In this study, of great originality and beauty, all<br />
the pieces participate. It seems impossible to obtain<br />
a positive outcome, but bK is brilliantly led<br />
to a mating position (or inevitable theoretical<br />
loss)."<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10404 An.Kuznetsov (Russia) and<br />
S.Tkachenko (Ukraine)<br />
1st prize Parenti Jubilee<br />
d4e8 0072.11 5/4<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10405 Pal Benko (USA and Hungary)<br />
2nd prize Parenti Jubilee<br />
Win<br />
d4bl 0002.33 6/4<br />
Win<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10403 Luis Parenti l.Kd3 alQ 2.Se4 g6<br />
(Kcl;Sc3) 3.Sc3+ Kcl 4.g3 g5 5.g4 wins.<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10404 An.Kuznetsov and S.Tkachenko l.Sb2/i<br />
Bc2 (Bd7;Sc4) 2Bb5+/ii Kd8 3.Se5 Bxa5 4.Sc6+<br />
Kc7 5.Sxa5 Kb6 6.Ba4/iii Bxa4 7.S5c4+ Kb5<br />
8.Kc3/iv a6 9.Sa3+ Ka5 10S2c4 mate,<br />
i) l.Sc3 Bd7 2.Sb5 Bxa5 3.Sd6+ Kd8 4.Sb7+<br />
Kc7 5.Sxa5 Kb6 6.Sb3 Kxa6 7.Sc5+ Kb5 8.Sxd7<br />
a5, a Troitzky draw.<br />
h6al 0830.01 3/5<br />
Draw<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10405 Pal Benko l.Ra8+/i Kbl 2.Rxf5<br />
Rc6+/ii 3.Kg5 h6+ 4.Kg4 Rc4+ 5.Rf4 h5+ 6.Kg3<br />
Rb3+ 7.Rf3 h4+ 8.Kg2 Rc2+ 9.Rf2 h3+/iii<br />
lO.Kgl h2+ ll.Khl (Rxh2 Rg3+;) Rxf2 12.Ral +<br />
Kb2 13.Ra2+ Kxa2 stalemate,<br />
i) l.Rxf5 Rc6+ (Rxf5 Rgl+;) 2.Kg5 h6+, and<br />
the main line will do until 10...Rbl+, a move<br />
scuppered by l.Ra8+!<br />
Or if l.Rfl+7, then not Bbl 2.Ra8+ Kb2<br />
3.Rxbl+ Kxbl 5.Ral+, but Kb2 2.Rxf5 Rxf5<br />
3.Rb8+ Kc3, and Black will win. ii) Rxf5 3.Ral+<br />
Kb2 4.Rbl + Ka3 5.Rb3+ Ka4 6.Rb4+ Ka5<br />
7.Rb5+ draw.<br />
892<br />
_J
iii) Rg3+ lO.Khl Rxf2 11Ral + draw.<br />
"A wonderful study, with subtleties on both sides.<br />
Black devises a mechanism to lead White to an<br />
apparent loss, but White engineers a stalemate<br />
after precisely sacrificing both his rooks."<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10406 Sergei Tkachenko (Odessa, Ukraine)<br />
3rd prize Parenti Jubilee<br />
7.Ka2 Qe2+ 8.Kbl Qe4+ 9.Ka2 Qa8+ lO.Kbl<br />
draw, Sg7 ll.Sg3.<br />
i) Kxf6 2.Sh5+ and 3.g7 draw.<br />
"Despite great material superiority Black cannot<br />
breach White's defensive position."<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10408 A.Kuryatnikov and E.Markov (Saratov,<br />
Russia)<br />
5th prize Parenti Jubilee<br />
b4H 0045.11 5/4<br />
Win<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10406 Sergei Tkachenko l.Sc8 Bd8/i 2.Sh5<br />
Kg6 3.Sg3 Bg5 4.Bxg5/ii Kxg5 5.Sd6 Sd8/iii<br />
6.Kb5 Kf4 7.Sh5+ Kxe5 8.Kc5 wins, Black being<br />
in zugzwang: Sf7 9.Sxf7+ Kf5 10.Sd6+ Kg5<br />
1 l.Sg3, is a Troitzky' win.<br />
i) Ba5+ 2Kb5 Kxg7 3.Ka6 wins. Or Bc5+ 2.Kb5<br />
Kxg7 3Kc6 Kg6 4.Kxb7 Kf5 5.Bh2 wins,<br />
ii) 4Se2 Bxf4 5Sxf4+ Kf5 6.Sd3 Ke4 7.Kc3<br />
Sd8 8.Kc4 Sc6 9.Sd6+ Ke3 10.SH Ke4 M.Sc5+<br />
Kf4 12.Sd7 Ke4 13.Kc5 Se7 14.Kd6 Sg6 draw,<br />
iii) Kf4 6.Sxb7 Kxe5 7.Sc5, and Troitzky would<br />
know how to win it - which is good enough for<br />
us.<br />
"A logical succession of moves by both sides,<br />
with a zugzwang that is both surprising and admirable,<br />
just when Black seems to have secured<br />
the draw."<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10407 G.Kasparyan (Armenia)<br />
4th prize Parenti Jubilee<br />
a2g7 3014.20 5/3<br />
Draw<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10407 G.Kasparyan I.f6+ Kh8/i 2.f7 Qf2+<br />
3.Kal Qf6+ 4Ka2 Qf2+ 5.Kal Se6 6.Sf5 Qel+<br />
ala4 0342.21 6/4<br />
Draw<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10408 A.Kuryatnikov and E.Markov l.Sb6+/i<br />
Kxa3/ii 2.Bb4+/iii Kxb4 3.Sd5+ Ka3 4.Sxf6 Bh8<br />
(Bxf6;d4) 5.d3 Bf6 6.d4 Kb3 7.Sc5+ Ka3 8.Se6<br />
Bh8 9.Sg7 Kb3 10.Se6 Bf6 ll.Sc5+ Ka3 12.Se6<br />
Bh4 13.Sc7/iv Kb3 14 Sb5/v Bf6/vi 15.Sc3 Bxd4<br />
stalemate.<br />
i) l.Sxg7 Kb3 wins. Or I.Bc3 Rxe6 2.Sc7<br />
Bxc3+ 3dxc3 Re2 wins. Or l.Kxa2 Rxe6 2.Bb4<br />
Rc6 3.Be7 Bd4 4Bd8 Rc2+ 5Kbl Rc8 wins. Or<br />
l.Sd4 Rfl+ 2.Kxa2 Bxd4 3.Bc3 Bxc3 4.dxc3<br />
Rf2+ 5.Kbl Kb3 6.Kcl Rc2+ wins,<br />
ii) Kxa5 2Sxg7 Kxb6 3.Kxa2 draw,<br />
iii) 2.Sc4+ Kb3 3.Sd4+ Kxc4 4.Kxa2 Ra6 5.Sb3<br />
Ra7 6.Ka3 Bf8+ 7.Ka4 Bb4 8.d3+ Kc3 9.Kb5<br />
Kxb3 10.Bxb4Rb7+wins.<br />
iv) 13.Sc5 Bel 14.Se4 Bb4 15.d5 BfB wins,<br />
v) l4.Se6 Bel 15.Sc5+ Ka3 l6.Se4 Bb4 wins,<br />
vi) Bel 15.d5 Bf2 16.d6 Bb6 17.d7 Be8 18.Sd4+<br />
draw.<br />
"Despite the initially artificial position and the<br />
brief (but not straightforward) introduction, the<br />
white knight finally forces stalemate against black<br />
king and bishop."<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10409 David Gurgenidze 1Rb4+ Ka8 2.Rxd2<br />
Rh3+ 3.Kg7 Rg3+ 4.Kh6 Rh3+ 5.Kg5 Rg3+<br />
6.Kh4 Rh3+ 7.Kg4 Rg3+ 8.Kg3 HS+ 9.KQ Sxd2<br />
10.Ke3 a5/i ll.Ra4 Sb3 12.Ra3 Sc5 13.Rxa5+<br />
wins.<br />
i) Sfl+ ll.Kd3 Sg3 (Sh2;Ke2) 12.Rb5 a6 13.Rg5<br />
Sfl 14.Rg2 wins.<br />
"Starting from a decidedly singular position the<br />
solution is artistically logical."<br />
893
<strong>No</strong> 10409 David Gurgenidze (Georgia)<br />
6th prize Parenti Jubilee<br />
h8b7 0500.03 3/5<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10410 Yochanan Afek (Israel)<br />
1st honourable mention Parenti Jubilee<br />
Win<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10411 Alain Pallier l.Kc7/i Kdl(Kd2)/ii<br />
2.Kd6 Ke2 3.Ke5 Kf3/iii 4.Kd4 Kf4/iv 5.Kc5<br />
Ke5/v 6Kb6/vi Kd4 7.Kc7 Kd3 8.Kd6 Ke2 9.Ke5<br />
draw.<br />
i) l.Kxb7 Kd2, and if now 2.Kc6 Ke2 3.Kd6<br />
Kxf2 wins, or if 2.Kb6 Ke2 3.Kxa5 Kxf2 wins,<br />
ii) Kb2 2.Kd6(Kd7) Kxa2 3.Kxe6 Kxa3 4Kf7<br />
Kxa4 5.Kg7 K- 6.Kxh7 a4 7.Kg6 a3 8.h7 a2<br />
9.h8Q wins.<br />
Hi) Kxf2 4.Kxe4 Kg3 5.Ke5 Kxh3 6.Kfl5 e5<br />
7.Kxe5 Kxh4 8.Kf6 Kg3 9.Kg7 h4 10.Kxh7 h3<br />
•11.Kg8 h2 12.h7 hlQ 13.h8Q Qxh8+ 14Kxh8<br />
draw.<br />
iv) Kg2 5.Kxe4 Kxh3 6.Ke5 Kxh4 7.Kf5 Kg4<br />
8.Kg7 h4 9.Kxh7 h3 10.Kg8 h2 Il.h7 hlQ<br />
12.h8Q Qxh8+ 13.Kxh8 Kf3 !4.Kg7 Kxf2 15.Kf6<br />
draw.<br />
v) b6+ 6.Kd6, and White wins, with the same<br />
result if e3 6.fxe3+ Kxe3 7.Kd6.<br />
vi) 6.Kb5 Kd4 7.Kxa5 Kc5 wins.<br />
"Many pawns, mostly static. The main feature is<br />
the moves of the solution being exclusively by the<br />
kings, without captures, and with a closed trajectory."<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10412 Julien Vandiest (Borgherhout, Belgium)<br />
3rd HM Parenti Jubilee<br />
b4d6 4000.23 4/5<br />
Win<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10410 Yochanan Afek I.e7+ Kxe7 2.d6+<br />
Kd7/i 3.Qh3+ Kd8 4Qh4+ Kd7 5.Qe7+ Kc6 6.d7<br />
Qh8 7.d8S+ (d8Q7 Qb2;) Kd5 8Qxb7+ Kd4<br />
9.Qf3 Qd8 (Qh6;Sc6+) 10.Qdl+ wins,<br />
i) Kf7 3.Qh7+ Kf6 4.Qe7+ Kf5 5.d7 wins.<br />
"The preentation is pleasant, and the sequence<br />
both clear and attractive. Merit is lost due to the<br />
existence of Troitzky (72T360")."<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10411 Alain Pallier (La Gene"touze, France)<br />
2nd HM Parenti Jubilee<br />
b8cl 0000.76 8/7<br />
Draw<br />
e6h6 4043.02 3/6<br />
Win<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10412 Julien Vandiest l.Bd + Kh7 2.Qh3+<br />
Kg7 3.Qh6+ Kg8 4.Qg5+ Kh8 5.Qh5+ Kg8<br />
6.Qf7+ Kh8 7.Qf8+ Kh7 8.Qxe7+ Kg8 9.Qg5+/i<br />
Kh8 10.Qh4+ Kg8 11.Qg3+ Kh8 12.Qh2+ Kg8<br />
13.Qg2+ Kh7 14.Qxb7+, with:<br />
Kg8(Kh8) 15.Qb8+ Kg7(Kh7) 16.Qxa7+ Kh8<br />
17.Kf6 Qh7 18.Qa8(Qb8)+ Be8 19.Qxe8+ Qg8<br />
2O.Qh5+ Qh7 21.Bh6 Qb7 22.Bg7+ Kg8 23.Qh8<br />
mate, or<br />
Bd7+ 15.Qxd7+ Kg8 16.Qe8+ Kg7 17.QH+<br />
Kh8 18.Qh5+ Kg8 19.Qg4+ Kh8 2O.Qh4+ Kg8<br />
21.Qg3+ Kh8 22.Qh2+ Kg8 23.Qg2+ Kh7<br />
24.Qhl+ Kg8 25.Qa8+ Sc8 26.Qxc8+ Kh7<br />
27Qd7+ Kg8 28.QH+ Kh8 29.Qh5+ Kg8<br />
3O.Qg4+ Kh8 31Qh4+ Kg8 32.Qg3+ Kh8<br />
33.Qh2+ Kg7 34.Bb2+ Kg6 35.Qg2+ Kh5 36.Kf6<br />
894
Kh4 37.Bd4 Qd3 38.BO+ Kh5 39.Qg5 mate,<br />
i) 9.Qd8+ Be8 10.Qxe8+ Kg7 draw.<br />
"Typical of the author with its laborious succession<br />
of precise checks designed to enable wK to<br />
approach and force the issue."<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10413 Enrico Paoli (Reggio Emilia, Italy)<br />
4th HM Parenti Jubilee<br />
iii) Kg4 9.Sh6+ Kh4 10.Sf5+ Kg4 ll.Se3+ Kh4<br />
12.Bel+ wins.<br />
iv) Ke4 13.Kc6 Kd4 14.KbS Sc5 15Bb6 wins.<br />
"White is ahead on material, but his one pawn is<br />
indefensible. Hie author artistically demonstrates<br />
a simple win."<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10414 Axel Ornstein (Sundyberg, Sweden)<br />
5th HM Parenti Jubilee<br />
b8b3 0004.32 5/4<br />
Win<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10413 Enrico Paoli I.b5 Kc4/i 2.b6 Sd7+<br />
3.Kc7 Sxb6 4.Kxb6 Kd5 5.Sh3 (SO d3;) Kxe5<br />
6.SO Kf4 7.Sdl Ke4/ii 8.Kc5 d3 9.e3 KO<br />
10.Kd4 Ke2 ll.Sc3+/in Kd2 12.e4/iv e5+/v<br />
13.Kc4 Ke3 14.Kd5 Kd2 15.Sbl+ Kc2 16.Kc4<br />
Kxbl 17.Kxd3 wins.<br />
i) Sd7+ 2.Kc7 Sxe5 3.b6 d3, and now not 4.b7<br />
d2 5.b8Q+ Kc2 drawn, but 4.exd3 Sxd3 5.b7 and<br />
wins.<br />
ii) Kg3 8.Kc5 e5 9.Kc4/vi Kg2 10.Kd3 Kfl<br />
ll.Kd2 e4 12.Sb2 Kf2 13.Sc4 Kg3 14.Sa5 Kf4<br />
15.Sc6d3 16.e3+wins,<br />
iii) H.Sb2e5+ 12.Ke4 d2 draw,<br />
iv) David Blundell: There is a dual by 12.Sbl +<br />
Kc2(Ke2) 13.e4 d2 14.Sxd2 Kxd2 15.e5.<br />
v) Kc2 13.Sbl d2 14.Sxd2 Kxd2 15e5 wins,<br />
vi) 9.Kd5 Kg2 10.Ke4 Kfl ll.Kd3 Kel 12.Sb2<br />
e4+ draw.<br />
"An ingenious and unexpected source of<br />
mid-board stalemate, which White has to circumvent,<br />
motivate a precise movement by king and<br />
knight, ending in a win with the sole remaining<br />
pawn."<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10414 Axel Ornstein l.Bd2 d4 2.Kc5 Sc3<br />
3.Kxd4 Se2+/i 4.Ke4 Kh4/ii 5.Kf3 Sgl+ 6.Kg2<br />
Sxh3 7.Sf6 h5 8.Sg8 (Be3 Sf4+;) Sg5/iii 9Bel +<br />
Kg4 10.Sh6+ Kf4 ll.Bd2+wins,<br />
i) Sb5+ 4.Kc5 Sc7 5.Sxh6 Kh4 6.Sf5+ Kxh3<br />
7.Sg7 Kg4 8.Kc6 Sa6, and the knight will be lost,<br />
though not without the exercise of subtlety: 9.Se6<br />
Kf5 10.Sf8 Kf6 ll.Kd6 Kf5 12Ba5 Kf6/iv<br />
13.Bc3+ Kf7 14.Se6 Ke8 15.Ba5 Kfl 16.Sd4 Kf8<br />
(Ke8;Sb3) 17.SB Kf7 (Ke8;Se5) 18.Sd2 Ke8<br />
19.Sc4 Kf7 2O.Sb2 KfiB 21.Sd3 Ke8 22.Bb6 wins,<br />
ii) Sgl 5.Bel Sxh3 6.Kf5 and mate.<br />
b6h5 0014.12 4/4<br />
Win<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10415 David Blundell (Gwernymynydd,<br />
Wales)<br />
6th HM Parenti Jubilee<br />
d8hl 0030.11 2/3<br />
Draw<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10415 David Blundell l.Kc7/i aS/ii 2.Kb6 a4<br />
3.Kc5 Bb3 4.Kd4 Kg2 5.Ke3/iii Kg3 6.Kd2 Kf4<br />
7.Kcl Ba2 8b4 draw, for example: a3 9.b5 Ke5<br />
10b6 Kd6 11.Kc2 Kc6 12.Kc3 Bd5 13.Kc2.<br />
i) l.Kd7(Ke7) a5 2.KU6 (Kc6,Bb3;) Bb3 3.Ke5<br />
Kg2 4Ke4 Kf2 5.Kd3 Kel wins,<br />
ii) Kg2 2.b3 Bb5 3.Kb6 Kf3 4.Kc5 Ke4 5.Kb4<br />
Kd3 6.Ka3 draw.<br />
iii) Gaining the decisive tempo. <strong>No</strong>t 5.Kd3(Kc3)<br />
Kf3 6.Kd2 Ke4 7.Kcl Ba2 8.b4 a3 9.b5 Kd5<br />
10.b6 Kc6 1 l.Kc2 Kxb6 12.Kc3 Kb5 wins.<br />
"Based on the familar L.Paulsen vs. Metger<br />
(NQremberg 1888) ending and a subsequent<br />
Holzhausen, the author adds valuable subtleties -<br />
using only five chessmen."<br />
895
<strong>No</strong> 10416 Miroslav Krejci (Brno, Czech<br />
Republic)<br />
1st commendation Parenti Jubilee<br />
Bd6+ 7.Kf6 Bb4 8.Kg7 c2 9.Kxg8 clQ 10.h7<br />
Qc4+ ll.Kh8 Qd4+ 12.Kg8 Qg4+ 13.Kh8 Qc8+<br />
14.Kg7Qf8+wins.<br />
iv) 7.Rh6+ Kb7 8.Rh7+ Kb8.<br />
v) Kd5 8.Rh5+ Kd4 (Be5;Rhl) 9.Rh4+ Kd3<br />
10.Rh3+, positional draw.<br />
vi) Bd6 7.Qe8+ Kb6 8.Rb7+ Kxb7 9.Qb5+, perpetual<br />
check.<br />
"The development is assured, even if the<br />
stalemate is familiar."<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10418 Timothy G.Whitworth (Cambridge,<br />
England)<br />
3rd commendation Parenti Jubilee<br />
e8h5 0031.12 3/4<br />
Draw<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10416 Miroslav Krejci l.Sxb2/i Bxb2 2Kd7<br />
d5/ii 3.Kc6 d4 4.f7 Ba3 5.Kb5 d3 6Ka4 Bf8<br />
7.Kb3 Bg7 8f8Q Bxf8 9.Kc3 draw,<br />
i) I.f7 blQ 2.fBQ Qb5+ 3.Ke7 Bg5+ 4.r;e6<br />
Qxc4+ 5Kd7 Qb5+ 6.Kc7 Bd8+ 7.Kc8 Qc6+<br />
wins. Or 1 Sa3 Bh6 2.f7 d5 3f8Q Bxf8 4.Kxf8<br />
d4 5.Ke7 d3 6.Sbl Kg4 7.Kd6 KO 8.Kc5 Ke2<br />
9.Kb4 d2 10Ka3 dlQ H.Sc3+ Kd2 12.Sxdl blQ<br />
wins.<br />
ii) Ba3 3.f7 (Ke6 Kg6;) d5 4.Kc6 d4 5.Kb5 d3<br />
6.Ka4 Bf8 7.Kb3 d2 8.Kc2 Bh6 9 f8Q draw.<br />
"A sculpted, simple miniature."<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10417 Alexander Hildebrand (Uppsala,<br />
Sweden)<br />
2nd commendation Parenti Jubilee<br />
d8c6 0460.21 4/5<br />
Draw<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10417 Alexander Hildebrand l.Ke7 (Kc8<br />
Bc7;) Rd6 2.e8Q Rxd8 3.Kxd8 c3 4.Re7/i Bg8/ii<br />
5.h7/iii Bxh7 6.Rxh7 c2 7.Kc8/iv clQ/v 8.Rc7+<br />
Bxc7 stalemate.<br />
i) 4.Ra7 c2 5.h7 clQ 6.h8Q Qg5+ 7.Re7 Qa5+<br />
wins.<br />
ii) c2 5.h7 clQ 6.h8Q Qd2+/vi 7.Kc8 Bd6<br />
8.Qhl+ Bd5 9.Rc7+ Bxc7 10.Qcl+ Qxcl<br />
stalemate,<br />
iii) 5Re2 Bf4 wins. Or if 5Re3 Bc7+ 6.Ke7<br />
b7d5 3240.23 6/6<br />
Win<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10418 Timothy G.Whitworth I.dxe4+ Kc4/i<br />
2Rc6+ Kb3/ii 3.Rd3+/iii Ka4/iv 4.Ra6+ Ba5<br />
5.Ra5+ Qxa5 (Kxa5;Bc3+) 6.Bf2/v g5 7.g4, and:<br />
b4 8.Rd5 wins, or<br />
Qb4 8.Rd4 wins, or<br />
Kb4 8.Bel+wins.<br />
i) Ke4 2.Rf4+ Kd5 3.Bc3+ wins,<br />
ii) Bc5 3.Rxc5+ Kb3 4.Rxb5+ Ka4(Kc4) 5.RM+<br />
wins.<br />
iii) 3.Rb2+ Ka3 4Ra6+ Ba5 draw,<br />
iv) Ka2 4.Rc2+ Kbl 5.Rcl+ Kxcl 6.Be3+.<br />
v) Zugzwang. <strong>No</strong>t 6Bc3 b4 draw. And not<br />
6.Bb2 Qel 7.Ra3-f Kb4 8.Bc3+ Qxc3 9.Rxc3<br />
Kxc3 draw.<br />
"bK and, later, bQ, are forced to the edge,<br />
whereupon a zugzwang resolves matters."<br />
"Separate from the above award the judges wish<br />
to draw attention to the participation of two individual<br />
composers and give them the stimulus of<br />
special distinctions:<br />
1) to the only lady participant, Greta<br />
Bergen-Frid of Moldova - her study deserves<br />
praise with its interesting solution,<br />
2) to Mario G.Garcia, the only participant<br />
from Argentina. He is basically a composer<br />
of problems but he entered two interesting<br />
studies, in one of which he corrects an original<br />
idea of Kurt Eucken (see p.80 of <strong>Vol</strong>.11 of Caput-<br />
896
to's El Arte del Estudio de Ajedrez).<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10419 Greta Bergen-Frid (Moldova)<br />
1 st special mention Parenti Jubilee<br />
d5h5 0000.34 4/5<br />
Win<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10419 Greta Bergen-Frid I.gxh6/i Kxh6/ii<br />
2.Kc4/iii g5/iv 3.d5/v gxh4/vi 4.d6 h3 5.d7 h2<br />
6d8QhlQ7.Qh8+wins.<br />
i) I.gxf6 g5 (gxf6 Kc4) 2.Ke5 Kxh4 3.d5 g4<br />
draw.<br />
ii) gxh6 2.Kc4 Kg6 3.d5 Kg7 4Kc5 KflR 5.Kc6<br />
Ke8 6.Kc7 wins.<br />
iii) 2.Kc5 f5 3.d5 f4 4.Kd4 Kg6 5.d6/vii Kf6<br />
6.Kd5 O 7.Kc6 f2 8.d7 Ke7 9.Kc7 draw,<br />
iv) f5 3.d5 wins. Or g6 3.d5 Kg7 4.Kc5 (d6<br />
Kf8;) f5 5.d6 wins.<br />
v) 3.hxg5+ fxg5 4.d5 Kg7 5.Kc5 g4 draw. Or<br />
3.h5 g4 4.Kd3 Kxh5 5.d5 g3 6.Ke2 Kg4 7.d6<br />
Kh3 8.d7 g2 9.Kf2 Kh2 draw,<br />
vi) Kg7 4.d6 Kf8 5.h5 g4 6.h6 g3 7.h7 Kg7<br />
8h8Q+ Kxh8 9.d7 wins,<br />
vii) 5.Ke4 f3 6Kxf3 Kf5 wins.<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10420 Mario G.Garcia (Salta, Argentina)<br />
2nd special mention Parenti Jubilee<br />
ii) Bf3 4.Rb8 Bg4 5.Rb7 Bd7 6.Rxd7 g4 7.Rh7+<br />
Kg5 8.Kg7 Kf5 9.Rh8 g5 10.RP8+ Ke5 ll.Rh8<br />
Kf4 12Rf8+ Kg3 13.Kg6 Kh2 14.Kxg5 g3<br />
15Kh4 g2 16.RD glQ 17.Rxh3+ Kg2 18.Rg3+<br />
Kf2 19Rxgl Kxgl 2O.Kg4 Kf2 21.Kf4 Ke2<br />
22.Ke4 Kxd2 23.Kxd4 d5 24.Kxd5 Kxd3 25.Ke5,<br />
draw.<br />
iii) 4Rbl Ba8 5.Rfl hlQ 6.Rf7 Qb7 wins.<br />
"The judges wish to thank problemist Laszlo Apro<br />
of Hungary for his participation at the age of 88.<br />
And finally the judges remark that the Argentine<br />
composer Eduardo Iriarte of Mendoza (who<br />
provided technical cooperation and assisted with<br />
the award booklet design) abstained from participating<br />
owing to his friendship with the three<br />
judges."<br />
Simkhovich Centenary<br />
This international formal tourney, also known as<br />
"F.Simkhovich-100", was judged by<br />
V.Razumenko. Provisional award received by<br />
AJR on 6vi96 from Razumenko as typed and<br />
photocopied handwritten diagrams. 21 studies<br />
published in the provisional award. "60 studies<br />
were received from 44 composers from the following<br />
countries: Argentina, Armenia, Belarus,<br />
B 'gium, Georgia, Nertherlands, Russia, Ukraine,<br />
Finland and France. Among the competitors were<br />
4 GMs 3 IMs and 4 'Masters of Sport'. Unfortunately,<br />
defects were identified in entries from<br />
A.Grin, G.Kasparyan, D.Gurgenidze/L.Katsnelson,<br />
P.Perkonoja, V.Prigunov, J.Vandiest, A.Pallier,<br />
P.Arestov, G.Amiryan, D.Pikhurov, and<br />
S.Abramenko. In addition, an entry from<br />
V.Kalandadze was found to be seriously anticipated.<br />
It was during the judging period that the<br />
sad news from Armenia of the death of GM<br />
Kasparyan was received. There are oddities to<br />
report. A prize for 'best plagiarist 1 would go to<br />
P.Polukhin (Ryazan): all 6 of his entries were<br />
completely anticipated, one of them duplicating<br />
the famous (d7e4 l.Kc8!!) study of the Sarychev<br />
brothers, and another a 1928 =1/2 prizewinner of<br />
Korolkov in "64" (a2h5 l.Sf4+). 1 have chosen 2i<br />
studies to figure in the award.<br />
V.Razumenko, St Petersburg 7H96."<br />
Analytical comment (to Kiryakov) added by:<br />
DavidB<br />
h8h6 0130.67 8/9<br />
Draw<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10420 Mario G.Garcia I.f6/i exf6 2.g5+ fxg5<br />
3.g4 h2/ii 4Rb8/iii Bd5 5.Rf8 hlQ 6Rf7 Bxf7<br />
stalemate.<br />
i) I.fxg6 Kxg6 2.Rh5 Bg2 3.Kg8 e5 4.Kf8 d5<br />
5.Ke7 e4 6.Kd6(Ke6) e4 7.dxe4 dxe4 8.Ke5 e3,<br />
and Black wins.<br />
897
<strong>No</strong> 10421 A.Sochniev (St Petersburg)<br />
1st prize Simkhovich Centenary<br />
composer's favourite themes.<br />
i) 5.d8Q Qxd5+ 6Qxd5 Ba2 7.Kh8 Bxd5, and<br />
the presence of wPa5 stymies the stalemate.<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10423 G.Nekhaev (Kursk)<br />
3rd prize Simkhovich Centenary<br />
f4h8 0004.33 5/5<br />
Win<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10421 A.Sochniev With level material the<br />
winner will be the side that promotes to queen<br />
first. Which will that be l.Sc2 Sd5+ 2Ke5/i Sb4<br />
3.c7/ii Sxc2/iii 4.Ke6 elQ+ 5.Kf7 Qg3/iv 6.c8Q+<br />
Kh7 7.Qg8+ Kh6 8Qh8+ Kg5 9.Qxg7+, and Kf4<br />
10Qf6 mate, or Kh4 lO.Qh6 mate,<br />
i) Other moves draw. 2.Kg3 Kg8 3.Kf2 Kf7<br />
4.Sb4 Sc7 5.Kxe2 Ke6 6Ke3 Ke5 7f4+ Kd6<br />
8.Kd4 Se6+ 9.Kxc4 Sxf4 10.Kb5 Se6 ll.Kb6 g5<br />
12.Sc2 Ke5 draw.<br />
ii) Neither 3.Sxb4 elQ+, nor 3.Sel Sxc6+ are<br />
to be recommended.<br />
iii) The long-awaited 4.c8Q+ is a mirage: Kh7<br />
5.Ke6 elQ+! 6.KH, OK, but 5...Kg6! 6.Qe8+<br />
Kg5!, and Black holds out.<br />
iv) Casting an eye on the g7 and h3 squares.<br />
"Russia's youngest master of composition gives us<br />
a study with a highly pungent point (4.Ke6!!). H<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10422 N.Kralin (Moscow)<br />
2nd prize Simkhovich Centenary<br />
f7h6 3430.43 6/7<br />
Draw<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10422 N.Kralin Black has material in hand,<br />
and threatens Qxd5+;, but his king position is<br />
compromised. l.g8S+ Kh7 2.Sf6+ Kh6 3.Sg8+<br />
Qxg8+ 4.Kxg8 dlQ 5.Rxdl/i Ba2+ 6.Rd5 Bxd5+<br />
7.Kh8 Rxa5 8d8B (d8Q Ra8;) Ra8, stalemate<br />
with pin of the promoted white piece, one of this<br />
e7c2 0133.10 3/3<br />
Win<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10423 G.Nekhaev One would expect Black to<br />
experience no trouble in attaining a draw - but<br />
White has the move. I.b4 Kb3/i 2.b5 Kc4 3.b6<br />
Be4 4.Kd6/ii Kb5/iii 5.Rf4/iv Bhl 6.Kc7/v Sg6<br />
7.Rf5+/vi Kb4 8.Kd6 Kc4 9.Rf7/vii Kb4<br />
10.Rh7/viii Bf3/ix ll.Rg7 (Rh6 Kb5;) Sh4<br />
12.RH Ba8/x 13.Rf4+ Kb5 H.Rxh4 Kxb6<br />
15.Rb4+ Ka5(Ka7) 16.Kc5(Kc7) Ka6 17.Ra4+,<br />
and White wins seeing that bB is wrong-footed,<br />
i) Bd3 2.Rxh8 Kc3 3.Rh3 and 4.Rxd3 wins,<br />
ii) 4.Rxh8 Kc5 5Rb8 Kc6 6.Ke6 Bd3 7.Ke5 Ba6<br />
8.Kd4 Bb7 draw.<br />
iii) Sg6 5.Rf7 Kd4 6.Rf5, reciprocal zugzwang<br />
working against Black: Ba8 7.Rf6, with Sh8<br />
8.Rfl8, or Sh4 8.Rf4.<br />
iv) Black's coordination must be disrupted,<br />
v) 6.Rh4 Kxb6 7.Rxhl Sf7+, and 8.Ke7 Se5, or<br />
8.Kd5 Sd8 draw.<br />
vi) 7.Rf7 Kc5 8Rf5+ Kd4 9.Kd6 Be4, with<br />
reciprocal zugzwang against White. Black is safe<br />
also after 7.Rfl Be4 8.Rf5+ Kc4 9.Kd6 Kd4,<br />
draw.<br />
vii) This manoeuvre has the object of enticing bB<br />
onto a8.<br />
viii) 10.b7 Bxb7 ll.Rxb7+ Kc3 12.RH Kd3,<br />
only brings the black forces together again,<br />
ix) Be4 ll.Rg7 Sf4(Sh4) 12.Rg4.<br />
x) Kb5 13.Rxf3 Sxf3 14.b7. Or Bg2 13.Rf4+<br />
Kb5 14.Kc7 Sg6 15.Rg4 wins.<br />
"With precise and subtly thought-out play White<br />
wins, persuading the superior black force to take<br />
up uncomfortable positions. An ultra-miniature<br />
with significance for theory."<br />
898<br />
•_J
<strong>No</strong> 10424 B.Lurye and t L.Mitrofanov<br />
(St Petersburg)<br />
4th prize Simkhovich Centenary<br />
Kh4 10Sxd4 cxd4 ll.Kg2/ii d3 12.f4 stalemate<br />
to the black king,<br />
i) Reciprocal zugzwang.<br />
ii) Il.f4 Kxh3, and 12f5 Kh2, or 12.Kgl Kg4,<br />
winning for Black.<br />
"A flurried introduction leads to a pair of<br />
w .te/black stalemates.*'<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10426 L.Katsnelson (St Petersburg) and<br />
V.Kovalenko (Maritime prov.)<br />
6th prize Simkhovich Centenary<br />
d3a1 4004.12 4/5<br />
Win<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10424 B.Lurye and f L.Mitrofanov At first<br />
sight there should be no difficulty in winning,<br />
given the black king's position on his own and<br />
cornered. But try l.Kc2 Se3+ 2.Kcl Qb8 3.Qc2<br />
Qb4. Or l.Sc2+ Kb2 2.Se3+ Ka3 3.Sc4+ Kb4<br />
4.Qd2+ Kc5 5.Qa5+ Kc6 6.Qa4+ Kc5. Both these<br />
lines suffice only to draw. l.Qe4 Qa6+/i 2.Kc2<br />
Se3+ 3.Qxe3 Qxg6+ 4Kcl Qbl + 5Kd2 Qb4+<br />
(Qb2+;Sc2+) 6.Qc3+ Qb2+ 7.Kd3 c5 8.Kc4<br />
Qxc3+ 9.Kxc3 c4 10.Kc2 c3 ll.Kcl c2 12.Sxc2<br />
mate.<br />
i) Sf2+ 2.Kc2 Sxe4 3Kcl and mate. Or Qd7+<br />
2.Kc2 Se3+ 3.Qxe3 Qf5+ 4.Qd3 Qf2+ 5.Kcl<br />
Qb2+ 6.Kdl wins.<br />
"The finale is familiar, but the composer has<br />
found a fresh introduction. The creative legacy of<br />
the late IM L.Mitrofanov lives on."<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10425 H.Grondijs (Netherlands)<br />
5th prize Simkhovich Centenary<br />
clb4 0000.75 8/6<br />
Win<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10426 L.Katsnelson and V.Kovalenko 1.Kb2<br />
(else Ka3;) gl.Q 2h7 Qg7+ 3.f6 (e5 Kxc5;)<br />
Qxf6+ 4.e5, with:<br />
Qxe5+ 5.c3+ Kxc5 6.d4+ Qxd4 7.cxd4+ wins, or<br />
Qh6/i 5h8Q Qxh8 (Qxd2;e6) 6.d4 a4 7x3+ Ka5<br />
8.b4 mate.<br />
i) Qf4 5h8Q Kxc5 6e6 Qd6 7Qh5+ Kb6 8.Qe2<br />
Qe7 9d4 h3 10.d5 Kc5 U.QeS'Qd6 12.Qe3+<br />
Kxd5 13.e7 wins.<br />
"With only pawns to start with we have an<br />
interesting systematic movement of white pawns,<br />
first remote from, and then close to, the king."<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10427 I.Bondar (Belarus)<br />
special prize Simkhovich Centenary<br />
fle8 3402.44 8/7<br />
Draw<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10425 H.Grondijs l.Sxd6+ Kf8 2.Sg6+ Kg8<br />
3.Sxf7 Qxd4 4.Sh6+ Kh7 5.Sf8+ Kh8 6.Sg6+<br />
Kh7 7.Sf8+ Kxh6 8.g5+ Kxg5 9.Se6+, with:<br />
Kf5 10.Sxd4+ cxd4 Il.h4 Ke5 12Kgl (Kg2<br />
Kf4;) Kf4 13.Kg2 d3 14.Kh3/i Kxf3 stalemate to<br />
the white king, or<br />
h3h 11006.02 2/5<br />
Draw<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10427 I.Bondar "Whence will succour come<br />
to White"<strong>No</strong>t by l.Qfi elS 2.Qg3 glQ 3.Qxel<br />
Sf2+ 4.Qxf2 Qg4 mate. The right way: l.Qcl+<br />
glS+ 2.Kg3 Sh2 3.Qbl/i Sfl+/ii 4.KQ Sg4+<br />
899
5.Kel. with:<br />
Sg3 6.Qe4+ Sxe4 stalemate, or<br />
Kg2 6.Qe4+ Sf3+ 7.Qxf3+/iii Kxf3 stalemate,<br />
i) Keeping e4 under guard. It is too early for<br />
3.Kf2 S6g4+ 4.Kg3 Se3 5.Kf2 (Qxe3,Sfl+;)<br />
Sdl+6.Kel hSf3mate.<br />
ii) S2O 4.KO Sg4+ 5.Kg3 Sf6 6.Kf2 elQ+<br />
7.Qxel Sg4+ 8.Kg3 draw,<br />
iii) 7.Kxe2 Sg3+ 8.Kd3 Sf2+ wins.<br />
"A superb windfall to come the composer's way!"<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10428 Yu.Bazlov (Vladivostok), N.Kralin and<br />
An.Kuznetsov (Moscow)<br />
honourable mention Simkhovich Centenary<br />
b3dl 0400.23 4/5<br />
Draw<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10429 N.Ryabinin Does it matter which pawn<br />
is taken It does! After l.Kxb2 Rxe2+ 2.Kal<br />
Rg2 3Rd8+ Ke2 4.Rg8 Kel 5.g7 e2, White loses<br />
due to having the worse of a reciprocal zugzwang.<br />
Therefore: l.Kxa2 Rxe2 (for Kcl;) 2.Kbl Rg2<br />
3.Rd8+ Ke2 4.Rg8 Kel 5.g7 e2/i 6.Ka2 Kfl<br />
7.Rf8+ Kgl 8.Re8 Kfl 9.Rf8+ draw,<br />
i) But isn't this the reciprocal zugzwang again<br />
<strong>No</strong>t quite.<br />
"Thanks to the right choice of first move White<br />
steers clear of Black's zugzwang trap."<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10430 G.SIepyan (Minsk, Belarus)<br />
honourable mention Simkhovich Centenary<br />
e8h7 0341.01 3/4<br />
Draw<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10428 Yu.Bazlov, N.Kralin and An.Kuznetsov<br />
l.Sd5 Rc6/i 2.Bxg6+/ii Rxg6/iii 3.Se7 Re6 4.Kf7<br />
Bd7 5.Sg8/iv Kh8 6.Se7 Kh7/v 7.Sg8 Bc8 8.Se7<br />
Bd7 9.Sg8 draw.<br />
i) Black is not missing anything. If R- 2.Se7 and<br />
3.Sxg6, still a draw,<br />
ii) Black's BfS;, must be prevented,<br />
iii) Kxg6 3.Se7+ and 4.Sxc6.<br />
iv) The symmetrical 5.Sd5 turns to Black's advantage<br />
after Kh6 6.Sf6 Bc8 7.Sg8+ Kg5 8Se7<br />
Bd7.<br />
v) Rd6 7.Sg6+ Kh7 8.SfR+ Kh6 9 Ke7 draw.<br />
"An original positional draw from the venerable<br />
team."<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10429 N.Ryabinin (Tambov region)<br />
honourable mention Simkhovich Centenary<br />
a3al 0460.22 4/6<br />
Win<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10430 G.SIepyan l.b8Q Bb4+/i 2.Qxb4 Rxb4<br />
3.d8Q flQ 4.Qf6+ b2 5.Qxfl+ Bdl/ii 6.Qxdl +<br />
(Rxb2) blS+ 7.Qxbl+ (Kxb4 stalemate) Rxbl<br />
8Ra2 mate.<br />
i) flQ 2.Ra2+ bxa2 3.Qb2 mate. Or Rb4 2.Qe5+<br />
b2 3.d8Q.<br />
ii) Discarding material in the interests of striving<br />
for a stalemate.<br />
"<strong>No</strong>t complicated, but effective."<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10431 Yu.Roslov (St. Petersburg)<br />
honourable mention Simkhovich Centenary<br />
f6f8 0047.13 4/7<br />
Draw<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10431 Yu.Roslov In view of Black's extra<br />
piece and two pawns, there is no time to lose.<br />
I.g7+ Kg8 2.gxh8Q+ Kxh8 3.Kf7 Sd5 4.Bg3 Bf4<br />
900
5.Bf2 Be3 6.Bg3 Sf4 7.Bh4/i Sd5 8.Bg3 Bf4<br />
9.Bf2 Se3/ii lO.Bel/iii Sd5 ll.Bf2, positional<br />
draw.<br />
i) White is on the qui vive. The symmetrical<br />
move fails: 7.Bel Se2 8.Bh4 Bg5 9.Sxg5 hxg5<br />
10.Bxg5 h5 1 l.Kg6 Kg8 12.Bf6 Sg3.<br />
ii) Black's knight and bishop have 'castled'!<br />
iii) And here is another symmetrical try: 10.Bh4<br />
Sg4 11.Bel Se5+ 12.Sxe5 Bxe5 wins.<br />
"In setting up a perpetual threat of mate White<br />
sees through a pair of tempting tries."<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10432 Yu.Solovyov (Gavrilov posad)<br />
honourable mention Simkhovich Centenary<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10433 A.Kotov Black has in hand a draw by<br />
perpetual check. White meets this with a mating<br />
threat. l.Sc6 Rgl+ 2.Kh4 Rhl+ 3.Kg5 Rh5+<br />
4.Kg6/i Rh6+ 5.Kg7 Rh7+ 6.Kxg8 Rh8+ 7.Kg7<br />
Rh7+ 8.Kg6 Rh6+ 9.Kg5 Rh5+ 10Kxg4 Rh4+<br />
ll.Kg3 Rh3+ (Ra4;Qa7+) 12.Kg2 Rh2+ 13.Kxh2<br />
Rhl+ H.Kxhl and wins, for example alQ+<br />
15.Qgl (or Kh2) Qxgl+ 16.Kxgl bxc6 17.dxc3.<br />
i) bR is taboo: 4.Kxh5 Rhl+ 5.K- alQ 6.Qc7<br />
Qbl+. And 4.Kxg4 Sf6+, is premature.<br />
"To attain his goal White lays on an original<br />
clearing of the g-file."<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10434 R.Heiskanen (Finland)<br />
special hon. men. Simkhovich Centenary<br />
f7a6 3057.40 8/5<br />
Draw<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10432 Yu.Solovyov l.a8Q+ Qxa8 2 Sb4+ Ka7<br />
3.Bf2+ Kb8 4.Bd5 Sxd6+ 5.Ke7 Sc8+ 6.Kf7/i<br />
Sd6+ 7.Ke7 Sf5+ 8.Kf7 Sh6+ 9.Ke7 Sg8+ 10.KH<br />
Sh6+ ll.Ke7 Sf5+ 12.KH Sd6+ 13.Ke7 Sb7<br />
14.g3/ii Bxg3<br />
15.Bxg3+ Sxg3 16.Kd7 Sc5+ 17.Ke8 Sb7 18.Kd7<br />
draw.<br />
i) 6Kf8 Bd6+. Or 6.Ke6 Sf4+. Or<br />
6.Ke8(Kd7) Sf6+. Black disentangles himself,<br />
ii) A try: 14.Sc6+ Kc8 15.Sa7+ Qxa7 16.Bxa7<br />
Bd6+ 17.Kf7 Sd8+, and 18Kg6 Sf4+, or<br />
18.Ke8(Kg8)Sf6+.<br />
"This twin-layered positional draw is original."<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10433 A.Kotov (Leningrad region)<br />
honourable mention Simkhovich Centenary<br />
ele5 0320.87 11/9<br />
Win<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10434 R.Heiskanen l.Bf7 Rg8 2.Bg6 Rh8<br />
3.Bh5 Rg8 4.Bg4 Rh8 5Bh3 Rg8 6.Bf1 Ra8<br />
7.Bb6 Ra7 8Kdl R-7 9Kcl R-7 lO.Kbl R-7<br />
ll.Ka2 R-7 12.Bh3 R-7 13.Bg4 R-7 14.Bh5 RH<br />
15.Bg6 Re7 16.Be8 Rd7 17,Ba5 Rh7 18.Bxc6<br />
wins.<br />
"A curious treatment of the Korolkov theme."<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10435 V.Kalyagin (Ekaterinburg)<br />
commendation Simkhovich Centenary<br />
g3a8 1605.15 5/9<br />
Win<br />
d8a8 0311.02 3/4<br />
Draw<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10435 V.Kalyagin l.Sg2 f3 2.Bxg4 G 3.Be2<br />
Kb7/i 4.Sf4 Rdl+ 5.Sd3 Kb8/ii 6.Kd7 Rd2 7.Bfl<br />
Rdl 8Be2 positional draw,<br />
i) Threatening Rdl+ 5.Ke7 Rel.<br />
ii) To provoke: 6.Ke7 Rel 7.Sxf2 Rxe2+ 8.K-<br />
901
RxQ.<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10436 G.Amiryan (Erevan, Armenia)<br />
commendation Simkhovich Centenary<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10438 E.Fomichov (Nizhegorodskaya region)<br />
commendation Simkhovich Centenary<br />
alb4 0011.14 4/5<br />
Win<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10436 G.Amiryan l.Kb2 g3 2.Sc7 g2/i 3 Sc S<br />
(for mate) Ka5 4.Bd8+, with:<br />
Ka6 5.Sc5 mate, or<br />
Kb4 5.Sf4 glQ 6.Sd3 mate,<br />
i) e2 3.Bc3+ Kc5 4.Se6+ Kd5 5.Sf4 draw.<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10437 Ed.Iriarte (Argentina)<br />
commendation Simkhovich Centenary<br />
a6b4 0011.34 6/5<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10439 P.Kiryakov (Krasnoyarsk)<br />
commendation Simkhovich Centenary<br />
Win<br />
h4h7 0005.23 5/5<br />
Draw<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10437 Ed.Iriarte 1 .Sg3 Sf5+ 2.Sxf5 e2 3.Sc8/i<br />
elQ+ 4.Kxh5 Qe8+ 5.Kh4 Qxc8 6.g6+ Kh8 7.g7+<br />
Kh7 8.Se7 Qd8 9.g8Q+ Qxg8 1O.Sxg8 Kxg8<br />
ll.Kg5 a5 12Kf6 a4 13.Ke7 draw,<br />
i) 3.Sd5 elQ+ 4.Kxh5 Qhl+ 5.Kg4 Qxd5 6.g6+<br />
Kh8 7.g7+ Kh7 8.Se7 Qg2+ wins.<br />
bldl 3102.23 6/5<br />
Draw<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10439 P.Kiryakov l.Sc5/i Qf2 2.Rc3 Qc2+<br />
3.Rxc2 bxc2+ 4.Ka2/ii Kxcl 5.Sb3+ Kdl<br />
(cxb3;KaI) 6.Kal Kel 7.Scl Kd2/iii 8Sa2 Kdl<br />
9.b3 cxb3 lO.Scl Kxcl stalemate,<br />
i) 1 .Sxb3 Qe4+ 2.Ka2 cxb3+ 3Rxb3 Qd5 wins,<br />
ii) 4.Kal Kxcl 5.Se4 Kdl 6.Sc3+ Kel 7.Sa2<br />
Kd2 8.b3 c3, when White is in zugzwang.<br />
iii) David Blundell: Black can win this position<br />
by triangulating away from wS, for instance, Kfl<br />
8.Sb3 Kf2 9.Scl Kel 10.Sa2 Kd2, winning.<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10440 I.Penteshin (Rybinsk)<br />
commendation Simkhovich Centenary<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10438 E.Fomichov I.d3 exd3 2.Sd6 flQ<br />
3.Bd2+ Ka4 4.Sc8 (Se4 Qf8;) Qf6+ 5.Sb6+<br />
Qxb6+ 6.Kxb6 b4 7.Kxc5 b3 8.Kc4/i bxa2 9.b3+<br />
(Bb4 a IS;) Ka3 1 O.Bel mate,<br />
i) 8.axb3+ Kxb3 9.Bc3 d2 draw.<br />
902
f4h5 0016 25 4/8<br />
Win<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10440 I.Penteshin l.Kf5 Se5 2.Ba4 Sc3 3.Bb3<br />
Se2 4.Bdl SB 5.Kxf6 fSgl 6.Kf5 f6 7.Kxf6 Sf3<br />
8.Ba4, and mate follows.<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10441 M.Gordian and N.Rezvov (Ukraine)<br />
special commendation Simkhovich Centenary<br />
i)hlQ2.Ra6+Kbl 3.Qf5+.<br />
ii) 4.Ra4+ Kbl 5.Ral + Kxal 6.Qa3+ Kbl<br />
7.Qxd3 Kcl 8Qc3+ Kdl 9.Qxb2 Qd5+ 10.Kxd5<br />
stalemate. This is the thematic try.<br />
iii) Rb2 8Ra4+ Kbl 9.Qxd3+.<br />
"A mate with two active self-blocks is rare<br />
enough. Interesting play is enhanced by the light<br />
construction."<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10443 D.Ioffe (Kazan)<br />
= lst-3rd prizes "64" thematic tourney.<br />
d2b2 0711.48 8/11<br />
Win<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10441 M.Gordian and N.Rezvov I.Kdl b4<br />
2.Bd2 f5 3Kel f4 4.KT1 h5 5.Kgl h4 6,Rfl h3<br />
7.Bel Kxal 8.Bc3 mate.<br />
"64" thematic tourney.<br />
The provisional award was published in 64 -<br />
shakhmatnoye obozrenie vii95 p60. Judge was<br />
Iuri Akobia. 18 entries by 15 composers, 6<br />
published.<br />
"In this thematic tourney (for a win study<br />
featuring both checkmate and stalemate) 15 composers<br />
participated with 18 compositions. Unfortunately<br />
the general level was lower than expected,<br />
and in addition some entries did not correspond<br />
to the theme."<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10442 D.Gurgenidze (Georgia)<br />
= lst-3rd prizes "64" thematic tourney.<br />
fla6 3350.43 7/7<br />
Win<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10443 D.Ioffe l.b8S+ Rxb8 2.axb8S+ Qxb8<br />
3.cxb8R/i Bb7 4Rxb7/ii hlQ 5.Ra7 mate,<br />
i) Thematic try: 3.cxb8Q g2+ 4.Bxg2 Bxg2+<br />
5.Kxg2 hxglQ+ 6.Kxgl stalemate, but Black<br />
must avoid, in this, 3...Bg2+ 4.Ke2 winning,<br />
White himself side-stepping both 4.Bxg2<br />
hxglQ+ 5.Kxgl and 4.Kxg2 hlQ+ 5.Kxhl g2+,<br />
in both cases with the stalemates,<br />
ii) 4.Bg2 Bxg2+ 5.Kxg2 hlQ+ 6Kxhl g2+<br />
7.Kxg2 and it's stalemate.<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10444 V.Prigunov (Kazan)<br />
= lst-3rd prizes "64" thematic tourney.<br />
c5a2 0506T1 4/5<br />
Win<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10442 D.Gurgenidze l.fBQ Se6+/i 2 Rxe6<br />
Sd3+ 3.Kd4 hlQ 4.Ra6+/ii Kbl 5Ral+ Kxal<br />
6Qa3+ Ra2 7.Qc3+ Sb2/iii 8Qcl+ Qxcl 9Rxcl<br />
mate.<br />
h4h6 0042.13 5/5<br />
Win<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10444 V.Prigunov l.Be5/i Bf2+ 2.Kg4 b3<br />
3Sel Bxel 4.SfB alQ 5.Bxal Bc3 6.Bxc3 elQ<br />
7.Bxel b2 8.Bd2+ Kg7 9.Bc3+ Kh6 10.g7 blQ<br />
11 .g8S mate.<br />
i) I.g7 Kh7 2.Be5 b3 3.Sf8+ Kg8 4.Sg6 Bc5<br />
5.Sel Ba3.<br />
903
"Double-edged play with plenty of points, a<br />
pleasing construction - and that's technique of a<br />
high order!"<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10445 V.Dolgov and V.Kolpakov<br />
(Krasnodarsk province)<br />
honourable mention "64" thematic tourney.<br />
(the threat) or Bf4+ 8.Kg2 Sg6 9.Sc4 mate just<br />
the same.<br />
i) 7.Bxh8 Bg7 8.Bxg7 stalemate, the thematic<br />
possibility lying in wait for so long!<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10447 V.Kalandadze (Georgia)<br />
honourable mention "64" thematic tourney.<br />
hlc7 0405.00 4/3<br />
Win<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10445 V.Dolgov and V.Kolpakov l.Rg7+ Kd8<br />
2.Sc6+ Ke8 3.Sd6+ Kf8 4.Rf7+ Kg8 5.Se7+ Kh8<br />
6.dSf5/i Sf4 7.Kgl/ii Sh3+ 8.Kfl Rf2+ 9.Kel<br />
Rg2 10.Rf8+/iii Kh7 U.Rf6 and 12.Rh6 mate,<br />
i) 6.Se8 Sf2+ 7.Kg2 Se4+ 8Kgl Rel + 9.Kg2<br />
Re2+ lO.Kgl Rel+, positional draw,<br />
ii) At the London CESC meeting on 5x95 Colin<br />
Crouch proposed 7.Rf6, and those present could<br />
find no effective antidote to the threat of Rh6<br />
mate. David Blundell: 1 agree that 7Rf6 seems to<br />
be a second solution - 7.Rf6 Rel+ 8.Kh2 Re2+<br />
9.Kgl Rel+ (Rg2+;Khl) 10.Kf2, and Re6<br />
ll.Sg6+ Kg8 12.Rf8+ Kh7 13.Sxf4 Re8 14.Rf7+,<br />
or Rhl M.Kfi Sd3 12.Rf8+ Kh7 13.Rf7+ Kh8<br />
14.Sg6+.<br />
iii) 10.Rf6 Sg5 ll.Rh6+ Sh7 12.Ra6 Sf8 13.Ra8<br />
Kh7 U.RxfB Re2+ 15.Kxe2 stalemate.<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10446 O.Pervakov (Moscow) and A.Selivanov<br />
honourable mention "64" thematic tourney.<br />
e2c4 0400.33 5/5<br />
Win<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10447 V.Kalandadze I.b6 Rxb2+ 2Ke3 Re2+<br />
3.Kxe2 b2 4Rxe4+ Kc5 5.Rb4 Kxb4 6.b7 Ka3<br />
7.b8R (b8Q blQ;) Ka2 8.d6 blQ 9.Rxbl Kxbl<br />
10.d7 a3 ll.d8Q, and White wins, a2 12.Qdl +<br />
Kb2 13.Qd2+ Kbl 14.Kd3(Kdl) alQ 15Qc2<br />
mate.<br />
PHENIX, 1991-93<br />
This informal tourney was judged by Jean Roche.<br />
The provisional award was published in PHENIX<br />
34(x95).<br />
"... <strong>No</strong>t a single French study in this 3-year<br />
period! And yet it has come to your faithful servant<br />
to select two prizes and three honorable<br />
mentions in this desert that was at one time the<br />
country of Rinck, Halberstadt, Charon, Lazard,<br />
Villeneuve-Esclapon...."<br />
"... an avalanche of demolitions, no solutions,<br />
duals 'rh^dibitoires', and from the most prestigious<br />
of sources. And this is not exceptional, it<br />
seems. Hooray for the solvers, but we should take<br />
thought. I do not believe that composers have<br />
become less conscientious, so I am inclined to<br />
place the blame on the general tendency towards<br />
complex introductions, a tendency that, besides,<br />
presents a deterrent to a fair number of potential<br />
enthusiasts."<br />
"It remains to judge the survivors. Just one study<br />
turned me on."<br />
18 studies were listed.<br />
g3g5 0085.02 5/6<br />
Win<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10446 O.Pervakov and A.Selivanov l.Bd8+<br />
Kf5 2.Bc4 b5 3.Bxb5 Bfl 4.Sd4+ Ke5 5.Bxfl<br />
Kxd4 6.Bf6+ Ke3 7.Sa3/i and Sg6 8.Sc4 mate<br />
904
<strong>No</strong> 10448 Andrzej Lewandowski (Poland)<br />
first prize PHENIX, 1991-93<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10449 Kozma Osul (Moscow)<br />
second prize PHENIX, 1991-93<br />
c4g4 4348.00 5/6<br />
Draw<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10448 Andrzej Lewandowski l.Qdl+/i Kh4/ii<br />
2Qd4+ Sg4 3Qh8+/iii S4h6/iv 4.Qd4+ Sg4/v<br />
5.Qh8+ S8h6 6.Qxe8 Rxe8 7.Bxa5 Rc8+ 8.Kb3/vi<br />
Rxcl 9.Bd8+ Kh5 10.Se2 Rbl+ ll.Kc2/vii Rb4<br />
12.Kc3/viii Ra4 13.Kb3 draw,<br />
i) l.Qxe8 Rxe8 2.Bxa5 Rc8+.<br />
ii) Kg5 2.Qd5+ Kh6 3.Qd2+ Kg6 4.Qg2+ Kf7<br />
5Qg7+ Ke6 6.Qe5+ Kd7 7.Qd5+ Ke7 draw,<br />
iii) 3.Sf3+ Kg3 4.Qgl+ Kxf3 5.QH1+ Kg3<br />
6Qgl+ Kh4 7.Qhl+ Kg5 8.Qd5+ Se5+ 9.Bxe5<br />
Qa4+.<br />
iv) Kg5 4.SO+ Kf5 5Qh7+ Kf4 (Qg6;Sh4+)<br />
6.Sd3+, and Ke3 7.Bd4+ Ke2 8.Sgl+ Kd2 9.SO+<br />
Kdl 10.Sb2+, or Kg3 7.Qh4+ KxO 8.Qh3+ (and<br />
Qxg4).<br />
v) Kg5 5.Sf3+ Kf5 6.Sh4+ draw. Or Kh5<br />
5.Qd5+ Kg6 6.Qg2+ draw,<br />
vi) 8.Kd3 Rxcl 9.Bd8+ Kh5 10.Se2 Rdl + wins,<br />
vii) ll.Ka2 Rb4 12.Ka3 Rc4 13.Kb3 Se3<br />
14.Sg3+ Kg4 15.Sn Re4 wins,<br />
viii) 12.Be7 Se3+ 13.Kd2 Sfl+.<br />
"The taboo piece theme is classic: an enemy piece<br />
can be taken fairly promptly, to secure a decisive<br />
material advantage, but the capture must be<br />
delayed under penalty of a mate, stalemate or<br />
devastating counter-attack. AH one can do is temporise,<br />
until the conditions for capture are right.<br />
See (i). On the other hand, if the black queen is<br />
not taken, there is no way to keep her in our<br />
sights. So we embark on a series of checks, apparently<br />
without prospects, and now, at move 6,<br />
against all expectation, we take the queen after all<br />
and, in spite of the same black riposte, there are<br />
enough resources to scrape up a beautiful perpetual."<br />
d7h8 0016.23 4/6<br />
Draw<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10449 Kozma Osul I.f7 S4b6+/i 2.Kd8 Kg7<br />
3.Bxb2 cxb2 4.f6+ Kxf7 (exf6;f8Q+) 5.fxe7 blQ<br />
(Sc7;e8Q+) 6.e8Q+ Kf6 7.Qe7+ Kg6 8.Qe4+<br />
Qxe4 stalemate.<br />
i) Kg7 2.Kxe7 bxclQ 3.f8Q+. Or S8b6+ 2.Ke8.<br />
Or Sc5+ 2.Kxe7.<br />
"The introduction displays no great technical<br />
mastery, but the order of White's moves is<br />
precise - White's move 4 is delicious, seeing that<br />
the stalemate is still in the distance. Above all,<br />
three different model mates." Osul, a strong<br />
trainer-player, accompanied the Russian solvers to<br />
Bonn and to to Belfort.<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10450 Leopold Mitrofanov and Aleksey Sochniev<br />
(St Petersburg)<br />
honourable mention PH&NIX, 1991-93<br />
d3a3 0164.12 4/6<br />
Win<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10450 L.Mitrofanov and A.Sochniev I.f7 Bd6<br />
2.Sxd6 n 3.Sc4+ bxc4+ (Ka2;Se3) 4.Kc3 flQ<br />
5.f8Q+ Ka2 (Qxf8;Ra7+) 6.Qa3+ Kxa3 7.Ra7+<br />
Sa5 8.Rxa5 mate.<br />
"Another vicissitudes study, but in more classic<br />
form. Each side sacrifices a piece to improve their<br />
promotion settings. The sacrifice of the white<br />
knight piquantly allows its capture with check.<br />
Even the white queen is abandoned. However,<br />
Gorgiev (1st prize, Shakhmaty v SSSR, 1956) did<br />
905
etter in this style (though his study is not in the<br />
FIDE Album) by sacrificing half of the force<br />
present. And there is always Mitrofanov's own<br />
immortal Vecherny Leningrad top placement in<br />
1971."<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10451 Janusz Skrzek (Poland)<br />
commendation PH&NIX, 1991-93<br />
i) 3.Bf2 Kxf6 4.Bd4+, would be the main line,<br />
but Black has h2 4.Kg2 hlQ+ 5.Kxhl Kxf6.<br />
"A simple study entailing an (elementary)<br />
sacrifice of the white rook, a systematic<br />
manoeuvre (also elementary), and a banal model<br />
mate with a black rook that is taboo for three<br />
moves (while the white knight is made safe). The<br />
composer's given 8.Be5+, is redundant, seeing<br />
that 8Bxh8, is an easy win: so the solution ends<br />
as we give it."<br />
ARTICLES<br />
editor: John Roycroft<br />
17 New Way Road<br />
NW9 6PL London<br />
f4h8 0334.68 8/12<br />
Win<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10451 Janusz Skrzek I.c7/i Bb5 2.bxc7 Rxc2<br />
3.Sc6 Rf2+ 4.Kg4 Be2+ 5.Kh4 Rf4+ 6.Kxh3<br />
Bg4+ 7.Kg2 Re4 8.Sd8 gxh6 9.Se6 win.<br />
i) l.bxc7Rxc2 2.e7Rc4+.<br />
"Two successive <strong>No</strong>votny interferences on the<br />
same black pieces but on different squares, aiming<br />
at the two same white pawn promotions: far harder<br />
with a white knight than with a white rook.<br />
Nevertheless the study is heavy and laborious,<br />
suffering by comparison with similar efforts using<br />
a rook. L.Zoltan produced three consecutive<br />
<strong>No</strong>votny's (1st prize, Magyar Sakk^let, 1958),<br />
and there is Kasparyan's perpetual <strong>No</strong>votny (to<br />
draw, of course), one of the Armenian composer's<br />
best, and hence one of the best ever, (1 st prize, in<br />
Shakhmaty v SSSR, 1959)."<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10452 Leonid Topko (Ukraine)<br />
comm. PH£NIX, 1991-93<br />
fle6 0411.03 4/5<br />
Win<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10452 Leonid Topko l.Rg6+ Kf7 2.Rf6+ Ke7<br />
3.Bc5+/i Kxf6 4.Bd4+ Kg5 5.SB+ Kg4 6.Sh2+<br />
Kg3 7.Kgl R- 8.Bf2 mate.<br />
JOHN SELMAN AND SAAVEDRA - laying<br />
the story to rest!<br />
The position and play:<br />
SI: Glasgow <strong>We</strong>ekly Citizen, 18vl895<br />
b6al 0300.10 2/2<br />
Win<br />
Solution: I.c7 Rd6+ 2.Kb5 Rd5+ 3.Kb4 Rd4+<br />
4Kb3 Rd3+ 5Kc2 Rd4 6.c8R!!/i Ra4! 7.Kb3!<br />
and wins.<br />
i) The move and its implications were seen and<br />
notified in a personal visit to the club by solver<br />
and Glasgow Chess Club member Father Fernando<br />
Saavedra.<br />
I: Background<br />
The credit for establishing and collating<br />
the facts surrounding this position is due largely<br />
to the solid work of the late John Selman of<br />
Scheveningen. Correspondence with him led me<br />
to suggest that he write an article, or monograph,<br />
for the British Chess Magazine. His reply was<br />
'not yet'. Enclosed with his 4-page typed letter to<br />
me dated 12x1960 was 'the first batch of papers<br />
(photocopies, reprints, copies of typewritten<br />
transcripts, and copies of letters)' arising from his<br />
revived research into the position's origins and<br />
early history. Selman supplied 33 items then, and<br />
several more soon afterwards.<br />
Selman's earlier research culminated in<br />
906
an article "Wie was Saavedra" ('Who was<br />
Saavedra') published in xi!940 in Tijdschrift van<br />
den Nederlandschen Schaakbond, and subsequently<br />
available (in Dutch only) as a 6-page<br />
offprint. This was authoritative enough - but<br />
failed to satisfy its author, who pointed to two<br />
important questions that remained to be answered.<br />
/. How could such dynamite lie dormant,<br />
according to all evidence, for seven years between<br />
18vl895 (the date of Barbier's third successive<br />
column in the Glasgow <strong>We</strong>ekly Citizen) and<br />
viil902 (issues of Deutsche Schachzeitung and<br />
Deutsches WochenschacKf.<br />
2. What sequence of events led to the<br />
position's wide dissemination during the Monte<br />
Carlo tournament of 1902 with tentative erroneous<br />
attribution of authorship to Emanuel<br />
Lasker<br />
Due to the exigences of my own profession<br />
I was unable to give Selman significant help,<br />
and I suspect that others whom he had approached,<br />
including the late Clifford Hilton, were<br />
similarly hampered. My files show no later correspondence<br />
on the subject - though I stayed at<br />
the Selman house in Zeeweg 10, Scheveningen,<br />
in, I think, 1967. The unfortunate consequence<br />
was that Selman was unable to see the completion<br />
of his Saavedra research. He died in 1978, in<br />
France, where he had been advised to retire for<br />
reasons of health. He was a heavy smoker.<br />
In vil996 I paid a short visit to the great<br />
van der Linde-Niemeijeriana chess collection<br />
housed in the Dutch Royal Library in The Hague,<br />
and in viiil996 1 spent several hours in the<br />
Newspaper Library in Colindale. Both opportunities<br />
were used to shed further light on what<br />
had puzzled John Selman. The moment seems<br />
ripe for a re-appraisal concentrating on the above<br />
two outstanding questions.<br />
This article may (vain hope) help dispel a<br />
myth that circulates uncontrolled - a 'loose cannon'.<br />
It is that the Saavedra position became well<br />
known almost at once. A recent sample is on p74<br />
of Karpov's Endgame Arsenal! (by Karpov and<br />
Gik) where we read that after 1895 Saavedra<br />
'soon became famous all over the chess world'.<br />
II: The 7-year hitch<br />
In what follows [S] acknowledges<br />
research by Selman.<br />
The <strong>We</strong>ekly Citizen columnist Georges<br />
Barbier died on 17xiil895, in France. The Glasgow<br />
Evening Citizen of the very next day carried<br />
an obituary, from which we learn that he had<br />
suffered an influenza attack two years previously,<br />
and "about the beginning of <strong>October</strong> he suffered<br />
an attack of brain paralysis" [S]. Neither this nor<br />
any other traced obituary of Barbier makes mention<br />
of the Saavedra discovery [S]. Barbier considered<br />
the position to be quite extraordinary [S],<br />
so something prevented him from ensuring wider<br />
publicity - though the other witnesses could scarcely<br />
have been aware of this. Confirmation comes<br />
from the Glasgow <strong>We</strong>ekly Herald, which reports<br />
that Barbier had been taken ill in France 'in the<br />
summer' [S]. The Deutsches Wochenschach of<br />
iil896 has only a three-line obituary.<br />
<strong>We</strong> can conveniently deal with Father<br />
Fernando Saavedra's involvement at this point.<br />
He left Glasgow in 1898 to take up a post elsewhere<br />
at the behest of the Anglo-Hibernian<br />
Order of the Passionist Fathers, his religious order<br />
[S]. From i!900 he served in Australia, but he<br />
was again in Glasgow from 1911 to 1915 [S]. Mr<br />
A.J.Neilson (see below), who knew Saavedra as<br />
'a great chess-friend' during both the latter's<br />
spells in the Scottish city, remarked on how he<br />
had changed in the meantime: 'Formerly he was a<br />
round-faced, spectacled, clean-shaved man with a<br />
merry twinkle in his eye, and full of fun, though<br />
very quick-tempered and impulsive. A Spaniard<br />
who learned English in Ireland, and spoke with a<br />
pronounced Irish accent (or brogue).... When he<br />
re-appeared in 1912 I didn't even recognize him!<br />
He was much older, and changed, with a long<br />
whitish beard!' [S] Neilson adds further colour by<br />
recalling that Saavedra never claimed the<br />
rook-promotion discovery for himself [S].<br />
Probably the priest viewed it sub specie aeternitatis,<br />
in which context it is indeed an example<br />
of a vanity lost among vanities. <strong>No</strong> chess writing<br />
by Saavedra is known, but he was a keen player<br />
(frequently taking a modest board in the Glasgow<br />
Chess Club's second team) with a 'slapdash' style<br />
of play (Neilson). Saavedra at one time owned a<br />
few chess books (mainly S].<br />
To return to the 1895 scene. In August<br />
one of the world's most famous tournaments<br />
began in Hastings. <strong>No</strong> chess event of the era can<br />
have had fuller reporting world-wide. Some of the<br />
players, among them Chigorin, Lasker and Marco,<br />
were journalists. Had the Saavedra position been<br />
known at Hastings it would have circulated as fast<br />
as, if not faster than, the spectacular games of the<br />
tournament victor Harry Nelson Pillsbury. <strong>No</strong><br />
reference to the Saavedra position in the tournament<br />
reports has yet been traced.<br />
What about the local Glasgow chess<br />
press Why did the story featured by Barbier in<br />
the Glasgow <strong>We</strong>ekly Citizen of ivl895 and vl895<br />
remain unremarked at the time outside the Glasgow<br />
Chess Club Consultation of the column of<br />
the Glasgow <strong>We</strong>ekly Herald suggests a number of<br />
907
contributing factors, some of which were accidental<br />
and others psychological. Here is a suggested<br />
list:<br />
- the Citizen column was small compared<br />
to that of the <strong>We</strong>ekly Herald, or even to that of<br />
Neilson's column in the Falkirk Herald,<br />
- the incident developed over several<br />
weeks, so that at first glance the diagram "End<br />
Game (<strong>No</strong>.416)" and text mentioning Saavedra<br />
(but not giving away Saavedra's discovery) on the<br />
crucial day would have looked like mere<br />
repetition or a standard type of correction;<br />
- the full story would have been clear<br />
only to someone familiar with the contents of<br />
Barbier's column over the crucial period;<br />
- the topic occupied few column inches,<br />
the climax being effectively two white moves: the<br />
underpromotion c8R, Black's defensive reply Ra4,<br />
and the coup de grace Kb3;<br />
- the solution with the Saavedra discovery<br />
was published a week later, in the column<br />
of 25vl895, in very small print and without a<br />
diagram, with Black's moves in a left-hand<br />
column rather than in the customary right, and<br />
with the critical moves buried in the following<br />
narrative text:<br />
M 5.R to Q5!<br />
<strong>No</strong>w Black is awaiting the White Pawn going to<br />
Queen, in order to obtain a stalemate, as pointed<br />
out in our last issue, by R to B5 (ch.). But White<br />
does not get a Queen. He gets a Rook!<br />
threatening R to R8 (ch.) and mate next move.<br />
<strong>No</strong>te the secluded and uncomfortable position of<br />
the Black King. Black does not like to be mated<br />
so soon; so he moves 6.R to R5. White now plays<br />
6.King to Knight's 3, and mate follows or Black's<br />
Rook is lost.<br />
This position is one of the most remarkable end<br />
games we have seen for many years." [S];<br />
- the position immediately prior to the<br />
underpromotion was nowhere given a diagram;<br />
- Saavedra was a minor club player and<br />
was modest;<br />
- no big name was involved;<br />
- Barbier's illness (in France in 'the<br />
summer');<br />
- no witness or column reader was sufficiently<br />
impressed to write to the BCM at the<br />
time - and after all, it was Barbier who had contacts,<br />
so he would surely handle the publicity;<br />
- witnesses might well have thought that<br />
since the position had been published, it's already<br />
there for the world to take note of, so there is<br />
nothing that need be done;<br />
- the 1895 Hastings tournament was<br />
about to seize not just the chess headlines but<br />
most space in all chess columns;<br />
- column space and club effort were<br />
deeply mortgaged to two absorbing correspondence<br />
games which the Glasgow Chess Club had<br />
embarked upon against the <strong>No</strong>rth of England;<br />
- in summer chess is out of season (the<br />
Hastings tournament was the exception), so<br />
interest was low;<br />
- devices for reproducing the <strong>We</strong>ekly<br />
Citizen column for easy circulation would not<br />
have been readily available.<br />
Mr Neilson, who edited the<br />
well-connected chess column of the Falkirk<br />
Herald from iv!894 to 22W1942, states that he<br />
several times told the true story in his column [S].<br />
However, there is no such reference during 1895<br />
[S, confirmed by AJR], so it seems that the<br />
influence of Neilson's column can be ignored. He<br />
sent the position and play for inclusion in<br />
C.E.C.TattersaH's anthology A Thousand<br />
End-Games [S] - where it is <strong>No</strong>.336 as<br />
'Rev.Saavedra' - but that was a decade or more<br />
later.<br />
It is unlikely, I suggest, that a more satisfactory<br />
explanation of the first mystery will be<br />
forthcoming.<br />
Ill: Lasker, Monte Carlo and Teichmann<br />
To repeat: no publication of relevance<br />
has been traced between v!895 and viil902 [S].<br />
In that year, though, a great deal happened. Enter<br />
the World Champion Dr Emanuel Lasker, who<br />
appears to have travelled between Europe and the<br />
United States, as others did, using the port of<br />
Glasgow. On 'a' visit to the Glasgow Chess Club<br />
'at the beginning of <strong>October</strong> 1902' [S] he met<br />
Mr.A.J.Neilson, one of the three witnesses (the<br />
other two were French: Georges Barbier and Hector<br />
Rey) to the Saavedra revelation when the<br />
latter had walked into the club [S] on, we think,<br />
the afternoon of 11vl895. In Mr Neilson's own<br />
words [S] on that day in x!902 he 'showed it to<br />
Dr Lasker ... seemed to be greatly taken by it at<br />
the time. He was World Champion by then. As I<br />
thought Fr.Saavedra the real finder of the full<br />
implication of Barbier's study, I credited Saavedra<br />
as the "author"' [S].<br />
The puzzle (for Selman) was that Neilson's<br />
recollection of the date was x!902, whereas<br />
we know from the Deutsche Schachzeitung (see<br />
below) that the position circulated at the Monte<br />
Carlo tournament which ran from 2iil902 to<br />
12iiil902, and in which, to complicate the picture,<br />
Lasker was not a participant [S]. So, how did the<br />
Saavedra position become known in Monte Carlo<br />
so early in the year Selman states (without supplying<br />
detail) that Lasker had visited Glasgow<br />
908
efore, but Ken Whyld, who has assembled a<br />
loose-leaf chronology of Lasker's life, informs us<br />
in <strong>1996</strong> that Lasker was not in Glasgow in either<br />
of the relevant months: xii!901 and i 1902. (But if<br />
Lasker was there, then, Selman suggests, Neilson<br />
may have simply misdated the occasion. Several<br />
patent errors of memory by Neilson in the letter<br />
in question - which is dated 7xil939 - were easily<br />
corrected by Selman in marginal notes.) To try to<br />
get a handle on this Selman wished to pursue<br />
research in Neilson's column(s) in Scottish<br />
newspaper(s) and in a column in the Manchester<br />
Evening News edited by Lasker, for Lasker seems<br />
also to have given one or more talks in<br />
Manchester about this time [S]. However, the<br />
Neilson column references still elude us and it<br />
turns out that the Manchester hypothesis is a<br />
mirage, because the World Champion's <strong>We</strong>dnesday<br />
column ran only from i1901 to xiil901. <strong>No</strong>w<br />
although the Monte Carlo tourney of 1902 began<br />
without Dr Lasker, it might seem that he could<br />
have told anyone about the position or published<br />
it - anywhere: but, as we shall see, he did riot do<br />
either of these things, because at the time he<br />
knew nothing about the Saavedra position. Like a<br />
Kasparyan study, all will become clear at the end.<br />
Enter another player onto the scene. A<br />
master with a stronger contemporary link than<br />
Lasker's between the Glasgow Chess Club and<br />
Monte Carlo is Richard Teichmann. The BCM of<br />
iil902 reports (p60): Mr Teichmann leaves Glasgow<br />
at the end of January to take part in the<br />
Monte Carlo tournament, and he may probably<br />
not return to Scotland till the beginning of the<br />
next season, when he will fulfill a two months'<br />
engagement with the Glasgow Chess Club. His<br />
four months' sojourn with this club has been very<br />
pleasant and instructive to the members [S]. As<br />
Selman observes, this is 'probably the source of<br />
the Saavedra at Monte Carlo', though it would<br />
seem to help the argument if Neilson, the only<br />
person we know to have been permanently enthused<br />
by the position, had anywhere mentioned<br />
the name of Teichmann. It is curiously apropos<br />
that the Oxford Companion to Chess tells us that<br />
'when it came to writing [Teichmann] was<br />
notoriously lazy', so we have a convenient<br />
explanation to hand to account for that master<br />
doing nothing to publicise the Saavedra prior to<br />
the tournament at Monte Carlo!<br />
Here is a chronology of some of the<br />
magazines that reproduced the position after the<br />
tournament.<br />
Deutsche Schachzeitung vii 1902 gives the above<br />
version (wPc6 bRd5) under 'Studien und<br />
Endspiele <strong>No</strong>.89T as author unknown ('von<br />
einem Unbekannten') with the comment on<br />
another page that the position became known<br />
during the Monte Carlo tournament. There is no<br />
attribution to Lasker, only a non-diagrammed<br />
reference to the well-known stalemate idea:<br />
S2:<br />
a6b8 0100.01 2/2<br />
Draw<br />
Solution: l.Rb7+ Kc8 2Rb5 clQ 3Rc5+. (The<br />
name of E.B.Cook is not given.)<br />
Deutsches Wochenschach und Berliner Zeitung<br />
<strong>No</strong>.28 of 13viil902 gives (as Endspiel 587) the<br />
same version, accompanied by the words 'Studie<br />
angeblich von E.Lasker' - 'a study supposedly by<br />
E.Lasker'. Six months later (Deutsches<br />
Wochenschach dated 25i 1903) the reply to a correspondent<br />
(WK of Stettin had asked for more<br />
detail concerning the alleged source) reads: In der<br />
Tat nicht von Dr Lasker sondern durch ihn nur<br />
der Vergessenheit entrissen worden, which can be<br />
rendered as '<strong>No</strong>t actually by Dr Lasker but<br />
merely rescued from oblivion thanks to him',<br />
which has a humorous, laconic ring. (The words<br />
'thanks to him' must refer solely to his name, and<br />
not to himself as a person. Lasker was fully<br />
aware that anything connected to his name would<br />
circulate.) That the information that followed<br />
these introductory words must have come from<br />
Lasker subsequent to his meeting with Neilson is<br />
clear from the accuracy and amount of detail: it<br />
names Potter and Fenton (protagonists in the<br />
match of 1875) and Saavedra - even if it omits<br />
mentioning either Barbier or a Glasgow<br />
newspaper. All this evidence from Deutsches<br />
Wochenschach is crucial in establishing when<br />
Lasker became aware of the position (no earlier<br />
than vii 1902), and indirectly confirms Neilson's<br />
account of when (xl902) Lasker became aware of<br />
its origins. (For another contemporary example of<br />
Lasker's sense of humour we can quote his reply<br />
in the Manchester Evening News (13xil901) to<br />
correspondent C.S.Howell: "1 admire your wisdom<br />
in preferring to back your luck rather than<br />
your skill.")<br />
909
Tijdschrift van den Nederlanschen Schaakbond<br />
ixl902 (p208, 'author unknown'). [S].<br />
From the foregoing it is clear that Lasker<br />
knew about the position before Neilson spoke to<br />
him - if Neilson's date of early xl902 is accurate<br />
- but not before viil902. Since we have the<br />
authority of Ken Whyld that Lasker did not visit<br />
Glasgow in the period xiil90I to i 1902, we have<br />
convincing circumstantial evidence that Lasker<br />
could not have told Teichmann about the<br />
Saavedra position.<br />
British Chess Magazine xil902 (p481-2) is the<br />
influential, detailed, and mostly reliable<br />
post-Barbier early account. It is not linked to the<br />
Monte Carlo tournament. The passage: On Friday,<br />
<strong>October</strong> 3rd, Doctor Lasker delivered a lecture to<br />
the members of the Glasgow Chess Club in their<br />
spacious rooms in the Athenaeum. [The<br />
Athenaeum was where Professor Barbier had<br />
delivered his French lectures. AJRJ There was a<br />
large and attentive audience. The lecture was<br />
chiefly devoted to end games. Attention was<br />
directed to the great power and scope of the King<br />
in the ending, and the question of stalemate was<br />
also discussed. The illustrations played over on<br />
the large chess board facing the audience were<br />
most interesting to follow, and the following<br />
position which we extract, with the comments,<br />
from the Glasgow<strong>We</strong>ekly Herald, was one of the<br />
finest examples quoted. [S]<br />
There follows the position (wPc6, bRd5)<br />
and play, with an account of its origin in error<br />
only in stating that the position is the ending of<br />
an actual game between Potter and Fenton,<br />
published as a draw until 'the Rev.' Saavedra of<br />
the Glasgow Chess Club first pointed out that<br />
White could win by calling for a Rook instead of<br />
a Queen. [S]<br />
[As a warning to quick-results-seeking researchers<br />
who rely on magazine indexes, the BCM index<br />
for the year 1902 points falsely to p.208, while<br />
the really useful pointer (to p.482) is to be found<br />
only under "Glasgow <strong>We</strong>ekly Herald".]<br />
The BCM also reports a post-lecture<br />
consultation game in which both Lasker and Neilson<br />
participated, and that on the next day, namely<br />
on 4x1902, Lasker sailed from Glasgow on the<br />
Columbia for New York.<br />
American Chess <strong>We</strong>ekly (Emil Kemeny, editor) of<br />
8xil902 gives the Saavedra position with a<br />
hopelessly garbled account of its origin. <strong>We</strong> read<br />
'cooperation with Dr Lasker will commence with<br />
the next issue', but the magazine ceased in 1903.<br />
[The Saavedra position has not yet been located<br />
in the few French or Italian or Swiss magazines<br />
readily available for consultation for the year<br />
1902. <strong>We</strong> should also like to know when and<br />
where (and with what accompanying story!) it<br />
was first reported in Russia.]<br />
Let us now attempt to evaluate the<br />
foregoing evidence.<br />
It seems to me that the explanation that<br />
does least harm to the fullest account will be the<br />
most convincing. <strong>No</strong>w the fullest account is that<br />
of Mr Neilson, so the question becomes: how may<br />
we perform minimum massage to what Mr Neilson<br />
has told us so as to fit the known facts<br />
Let us focus on Teichmann, the link<br />
between Glasgow and Monte Carlo. Teichmann<br />
delivered many lectures to the members during<br />
his four-month spell with the Glasgow Chess<br />
Club. (That club had followed the examples of<br />
the Manchester and Liverpool clubs, which had<br />
engaged Lasker and Amos Burn respectively.)<br />
Since Teichmann must have talked to most of the<br />
active members at one time or another, it is almost<br />
inconceivable that someone did not show<br />
him the Saavedra position. That person did not<br />
have to be Mr Neilson. Indeed, since Mr Neilson<br />
was the member most familiar with the involved<br />
provenance it is in retrospect unlikely that the two<br />
did speak on the subject. <strong>We</strong> may further surmise<br />
that since Neilson played on the upper boards of<br />
the club's first team Teichmann's lectures, mainly<br />
on the openings, would not have held strong appeal<br />
for him.<br />
To account for the spurious association<br />
of the position with Lasker we propose the following.<br />
On seeing the position demonstrated by<br />
Teichmann one or more of the many experienced<br />
players at Monte Carlo could easily have recalled<br />
a position dating from 1892 and definitely due to<br />
Lasker.<br />
S3: Emanuel Lasker<br />
The London Fortnightly, 1892<br />
g6a6 0301.10 3/2<br />
Win<br />
Solution: l.f (Kf5) Rxe6+ 2.Kg5 Re5+ 3Kg4<br />
Re4+ 4.Kg3 Re3+ 5.Kf2 wins.<br />
In the player-dominated setting of a tour-<br />
910
nament the similarity would be quite enough for<br />
on-lookers and reporters to 'attach' the<br />
demonstrated position to Lasker.<br />
Our final conjecture is that in all<br />
probability Teichmann learned of the Saavedra<br />
position neither from Lasker (who was not in<br />
Glasgow at the time, never claimed to be the<br />
composer, and had no connection with Monte<br />
Carlo 1902), nor from Neilson (who would have<br />
made sure that Teichmann had the facts straight),<br />
but from a third, unidentified, member of the<br />
Glasgow Chess Club. This seems to be the<br />
simplest resolution of the knot.<br />
So perhaps the second point can now be<br />
laid to rest too.<br />
The present article is a tribute to the late<br />
John Selman, whose doggedness and method<br />
should be models for us all. As well as supplying<br />
us with 600 grammes' worth of documentation,<br />
Selman set out his research creed, which we<br />
quote: It is my opinion that first of all we must<br />
have the disposal of all facts published, even<br />
rather unimportant and scanty details. In the<br />
'final round', during the actual writing of the<br />
monograph, many of these seemingly unnecessary<br />
particulars may be omitted. On the other hand,<br />
good documentation and a complete list of<br />
references are strictly required.<br />
Surveying the above story it is sad to see<br />
a position's worth judged more by who is associated<br />
with it (in this case a world champion)<br />
than by the nature of the position itself when<br />
publicised 'only' by such as Barbier and Neilson.<br />
John Roycroft, London viii96<br />
Footnote <strong>No</strong>.l<br />
Selman researched with his eyes open.<br />
He spotted the following, which antedates the<br />
efforts of several famous composers, including<br />
L.Kubbel(1909).<br />
S4: W.Finlayson, Edinburgh<br />
Problem 1528,<br />
Glasgow <strong>We</strong>ekly Herald, 20vii 1901<br />
a2g7 0410.13 4/5<br />
Win<br />
Solution: l.f8Q+ Kxf8 2.Bh7 Ke8 3.Ra7 RfS<br />
4Bg6+ Kd8 5.Bf7 Kc8 6.Ra8+ wins.<br />
Footnote <strong>No</strong>.2<br />
And here's a genuine Lasker concoction -<br />
interesting chiefly as an early example of the<br />
'draughts' theme, which L.Kubbel also presented<br />
later, in 1921, with greater artistry:<br />
S5: Emanuel Lasker<br />
Manchester Evening News, 4ixl901 and 30x1901<br />
b5c8 4777.21 7/9<br />
Draw<br />
Solution: l.Rb8+ Sxb8 2.Bb7+ Kxb7 3.Sd6+<br />
Rxd6 4.Qxa7+ Kxa7 5.c8S+ Kb7 6.Sxc6+ Kc7<br />
7.Sxe8+ K- 8.Sxg7 draw.<br />
REVIEWS<br />
editor: John Roycroft<br />
17 New Way Road<br />
NW9 6PL London<br />
First impressions of World Anthology of Chess<br />
Studies - <strong>Vol</strong>ume HI<br />
By a series of accidents I received this volume<br />
before the two earlier volumes. I write not as<br />
someone who has never composed a study but as<br />
someone who for many years spent quite a lot of<br />
time at the weekends trying to solve studies •<br />
until the disappearance of the much lamented<br />
Assiac column in the New Statesman. One's<br />
initial impression is that for a chess study enthusiast<br />
this collection would be high on a<br />
shortlist for the radio programme 'Desert Island<br />
Discs'. There is undoubtedly enough material here<br />
to last most of us a lifetime.<br />
It must be clear, however, that the author did not<br />
simply aspire to produce an interesting collection<br />
of studies. He has tried to structure the volume,<br />
which is sub-titled 'The Positional Draw', in an<br />
instructive and analytical way. He has done this<br />
by arranging the material according to a number<br />
of major themes: fortress and blockade; perpetual<br />
fastening and pinning; perpetual attack; perpetual<br />
check; ideas of perpetual threat and ideas of per-<br />
911
petual prevention and perpetual alternation of<br />
tactical motives. In most cases the studies are<br />
grouped within each theme according to the<br />
amount of material employed, Some of the<br />
material combinations are fairly esoteric, for<br />
instance, three white knights against the black<br />
queen, based on a study by Sevitov in 1955,<br />
where White's third knight appears by<br />
underpromotion. In this volume the studies themselves<br />
are preceded by diagrams of thematic<br />
positions, arranged according to the same classification.<br />
In searching for material, or even in<br />
browsing, this helps significantly. Further, it<br />
provides a useful check against possible errors in<br />
the diagrams. So study 0065 does not make much<br />
sense to me with the given solution but would fit<br />
in with the thematic arrangement if a white pawn<br />
stood on b6. (One of the difficulties with works<br />
of this kind is that one is never quite sure whether<br />
the mistake is in oneself or in the publisher.)<br />
This work seems to me to be excellent value for<br />
money. [The cost of the 700-page work is £45,<br />
which includes postage and recorded delivery<br />
when ordered through A JR.] Do not, however,<br />
buy it for the English, which is somewhat fractured.<br />
Paper and printing are functional rather<br />
than glossy.<br />
M.P.Furmston,<br />
Bristol, vi96<br />
el carte del ESTUDJO de ajedrez, volume 3, by<br />
Zoilo R.Caputto, Buenos Aires, Argentina, <strong>1996</strong>.<br />
754 pages, 1500 diagrams (further positions are<br />
without diagrams), many 'passport' photographs.<br />
In Spanish. Algebraic notation, but not with<br />
figurines. It is a limited edition of 250 copies.<br />
Typesetting (electronic offset by 'Laser-Graph'),<br />
design, layout and illustrations, indeed ail the<br />
desk-top publishing aspects, appear to be either by<br />
the author personally or by Adriana Laura<br />
Dram is, as described in the 'agradecimiento' on<br />
p735, where many acknowledgements are listed.<br />
There is no ISBN, and no diagram retrieval directory.<br />
The author-publisher has kept his<br />
long-held promise. This is the third volume in<br />
Professor Caputto's crusade to plot in detail the<br />
progress of the study through the centuries and to<br />
record its state across the globe. Little could he<br />
have known when setting out what his endeavour<br />
would entail. This third volume, weighing in at<br />
over a kilogramme, embraces 'the rest of the<br />
world' - but it does not! A fourth volume will<br />
cover the countries of the ex-USSR, leaving a<br />
fifth to address study 'technique'.<br />
Despite its soft cover the volume is a<br />
pleasure to handle, to examine closely, and to<br />
consult. Diagrams are plentiful, crystal clear, and<br />
accompanied by source and year. Accents, etc.,<br />
are conscientiously applied to vowels and consonants<br />
in composers' names, whatever the language.<br />
Academic style footnotes abound. The<br />
name index functions well. Every page oozes<br />
evidence of protracted and persistent research<br />
effort. To take just two examples: we have ourselves<br />
failed to trace the dates of Hans Cohn of<br />
Guatemala (who has no entry in Jeremy Gaige's<br />
Chess Personalia, 1987), but Professor Caputto<br />
gives us - 1898-1964; and the elusive, not to say<br />
enigmatic, Carvajal Aliaga (Bolivia) is in<br />
evidence both in photo and in multiple study<br />
flesh. Many examples are absolutely up-to-date,<br />
with <strong>No</strong>am Elkies, for example, represented by<br />
ten compositions.<br />
The book's organisation follows that of<br />
Bondarenko's Gallery (1968) by taking the<br />
countries of the world in alphabetical order, but in<br />
much greater depth and with a wider selection<br />
than the soviet chronicler's parallel work of nearly<br />
30 years ago, which, incidentally, had 300<br />
pages of half the size of el arte, volume 3. The<br />
author has had to bite the bullet of allocating<br />
European nationalities when countries have come<br />
(and gone) in recent years, sometimes overnight,<br />
but no one, we hope, will be offended by finding<br />
himself where he might prefer not to be. The<br />
delay in the appearance of volume 4, devoted to<br />
FSU-land, may in this respect be a blessing in<br />
disguise, in that that volume should not soon be<br />
out of date.<br />
The author tells us that he has personally<br />
examined each study before selecting it, occasionally<br />
adding his own comment, for instance<br />
where computer discoveries have seemed relevant<br />
to the study's soundness. <strong>We</strong> have to say that<br />
since the author seems not to have had access to<br />
computer-generated endgame databases it might<br />
have been better had these observations, which<br />
are in the nature of questions, not statements,<br />
been omitted. This impression is strengthened<br />
when we find no such comment - <strong>No</strong>. 1568 by<br />
Orrin Frink is a case in point, for it illustrates<br />
GBR class 0023.<br />
All styles of composition are represented.<br />
This glorious book is a browser's paradise. <strong>We</strong><br />
miss just one prominent name • Saavedra!<br />
Endgame Virtuosity, 'A selection of 222 Israeli<br />
chess studies', 160 pages, <strong>1996</strong>. Published by<br />
Friedrich Chlubna, Vienna, who also computer-set<br />
the pages using Frank David's visibly versatile<br />
program ChessOle!. ISBN 3-9500310-4-9<br />
912
This is yet another new book to get excited<br />
about. Originality and imagination shout<br />
from every page: there is no author - there are<br />
only authors; the introduction is by - a<br />
problemist; there is a rivetting photograph and<br />
friendly profile of each major composer to head<br />
'his' chapter; the personalities come across as<br />
each comments in his own way on his own<br />
selected material; the number of recent studies is<br />
enormously impressive; we leam - that <strong>No</strong>am<br />
Elkies is one year younger than EG, that Davy<br />
Godes is no longer in Russia but in Israel, that<br />
old player-hand Raaphy Persitz is still around (as<br />
translator from the Hebrew), that M.Bronstein is<br />
the same man as Mordehai Shaham (who may<br />
therefore be the unidentified 'Shahmat' entrant for<br />
the 1982-84 'Rueb Stichting' event); and that<br />
(p!49) "<strong>We</strong> respect the wish of Benjamin Yaacobi<br />
that his works should not appear in this collection."<br />
Eflm Maidanik of Jerusalem (from whom I<br />
learned at least half of all my really useful<br />
knowledge of Soviet Russia) is also absent, but<br />
then Efim has not composed since he left his<br />
native Ukraine some 20 years ago, so he is,<br />
presumably, technically not 'an Israeli composer'.<br />
A plea to our Viennese friend Friedrich<br />
C.! Your book does not readily lie flat when open!<br />
As it is hard to put down (!) please put this right<br />
with your next publication, which we eagerly<br />
await. Any or all of the studies by Yochanan<br />
Afek, Hillel Aloni, Amatzia Avni, Ofer Comay,<br />
<strong>Gady</strong> Costefif and Yehuda Hoch could be quoted<br />
here - but most are in EG already. Instead, we<br />
reproduce two startling efforts by <strong>No</strong>am Elkies<br />
that have not so far graced our pages. The notes<br />
(abbreviated and adapted for EG's standard<br />
solution format) are taken, with grateful acknowledgement,<br />
from the book being reviewed.<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10453 N.Elkies<br />
American Chess Journal, 1993<br />
(blQ;Qf4+) 3.Kh6/\\\ Qb6+ 4.Bc6l'\\ Qxc6+<br />
(Qe3+;Qg5) 5Kxh7 b!Q+ 6.Kh8N Khl 7./Qg8H<br />
position after 7.fQg8<br />
h8hl 8000.00<br />
BTM, Win<br />
"Yet another quiet move in this most tactical of<br />
endgames! White does not even have a threat, but<br />
wins by zugzwang since Black cannot keep all<br />
focal points gl, g2, h6, h7 guarded. White wins."<br />
The position of reciprocal zugzwang was an output<br />
from Lewis Stiller's pawnless 6-man computer<br />
research.<br />
i) l.Qd6+ Kxg2 2.f8Q Qh3+ 3Kg5 Qe3+, forces<br />
either perpetual check or a Q-swap, drawing,<br />
ii) 2.QeS+ Kjcg2 3.f8Q Qh3+ 4Kg5 blQ, followed<br />
by bKhl and bBe4.<br />
iii) If 3.Kg4, then, not Qb4+ 4.Qf4+ Qxf4+<br />
5.Kxf4 blQ 6.Qg3+, but Bf5+ 4.Kf4(Kh4) Qc4+<br />
drawing.<br />
iv) 4.Kxh7 blQ+ 5.Kh8 Qb8.<br />
v) "Black is the first to check in the 4Q endgame,<br />
but cannot continue checking. Meanwhile his own<br />
king is in mortal peril; for instance: Qg2 7.Qc7+<br />
Kgl 8.fQc5+ Khl 9.Qh5-h<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10454 N.Elkies<br />
The Internet 1991<br />
h5g3 4040.11<br />
Win<br />
Solution: l.Qg7+/\ Kh2 2.f8QI\\ Qb5+<br />
h5a5 3002.54<br />
Draw<br />
The 'Internet' is not a publication - nobody yet<br />
knows what it is - perhaps a 'meta-publication'....<br />
Solution: l./6/l Qb3 2./7 Qdl+ 3.Kh6l'\\ Qf3<br />
913
(Kf6,Qh4+;) Qf5+(Qh5+)<br />
7.Kh7 Qf6 8.Kg8 Qg6+ .£/5/iii<br />
Ka4 W.Ke7 Qg7 JJ.Ke8 Qe5+ 12.Kd7(Kd8)<br />
Qf6(+) J3.Ke8 Qe6+ 14.KJ8 Kb3 IS.Kg7 Qe7<br />
16Kg8 Qg5+ 17.Kh7(Kh8) Qf6(+) 18.Kg8 Qg6+<br />
19.K/8 Kb2 2O.Ke7 ... "and so it continues, Black<br />
gaining time for a king move every fifth turn:<br />
24...Kcl, 29..Kdl, 34...Ke2, 39..K/3, 44.Ke4, and<br />
finally": 48Kg8 Qg6+ 49.Kf8 Ke5 -<br />
position after 49...Ke5<br />
flBe5 3002.54 8/6.<br />
5O.Ke7 Qd6+ 51Ke8 Ke6l\\ 52Sc2 H Draw!!7v.<br />
i) "In the queenside jumble only bQ and bK are<br />
active. wSS and wPP are immobile, but serve to<br />
delay Black's pieces."<br />
ii) "....The point is only revealed at the end."<br />
iii) "The paralyzed queenside has an effect after<br />
all: the standard stalemate resource 9.Kh8 Qxf7,<br />
fails here because White has the suicide move<br />
10.Sc2. So White must block his pawn and enable<br />
the black king to approach."<br />
iv) "Quickest: now 52.f8Q Qd7(Qb8) j s mate, and<br />
52.f8S+ Kf6 53.Sd7+ Kf5, is hopeless. But thanks<br />
to White having played Lib, 2.f7, before 3.Kh6,<br />
and delayed Black as long as possible since then,<br />
White can almost claim a draw by the 50-move<br />
rule, as long as he can avoid moving a pawn now;<br />
and the very suicidal move that foiled the<br />
stalemate defence 9.Kh8 now becomes White's<br />
saving clause."<br />
v) "Several positions have been composed in<br />
which White, in a seemingly hopeless position,<br />
castles or plays the unique non-pawn, non-capture<br />
move, then demonstrates a 50-move draw by<br />
retrograde analysis! The above endgame seems to<br />
be the first example of forcing a 50-move draw<br />
by FORWARD analysis. Admittedly there is a<br />
difference: long retroanalyses are in the spirit of<br />
the genre, but a 50-move draw in a study is not.<br />
White can hardly argue that Black was making no<br />
progress: his next move would be checkmate!<br />
Thus this study fits only the curiosity page, not an<br />
endgame column."<br />
EC readers, most of whom presumably have an<br />
interest in the controversy of the 50-move rule<br />
and the application of endgame theory to the<br />
study, have every right to become acquainted with<br />
this extraordinary composition! From the composer's<br />
note (v) we sense his accord with the<br />
view that there should be no limitations on the<br />
application of endgame theory to a study's<br />
solution, and that therefore the 50-move rule is,<br />
or ought to be, an irrelevance in (serious!)<br />
studies. The solution's logic and execution are<br />
impeccable - there could not be a more appealing<br />
or emphatic demonstration of a game rule's<br />
foreignness in an art form: it is a superb reductio<br />
ad absurdum argument. (In other words it is absurd<br />
seriously to claim 'no duals' by virtue of a<br />
game rule that artificially distinguishes pawn<br />
moves from moves of the other chessmen.) But<br />
by all means let us revel in adventure and<br />
imagination wherever and whenever those<br />
qualities proclaim themselves! It's a composition<br />
that leaves us gasping.<br />
25 Ausgewahlte Endspielstudien von Leonid Kubbel,<br />
published by Jan van Reek, Margraten, <strong>1996</strong>.<br />
12 pages, 30 diagrams.<br />
Early in 1924, Leonid Kubbel selected 25 of the<br />
studies he had published during the previous three<br />
years, wrote them out, and presented the<br />
manuscript to Emanuel Lasker. The manuscript<br />
recently came into the possession of Jan van<br />
Reek, who has now put it into print.<br />
The studies are well known. They are amongst the<br />
40 or so from 1921-1923 which Kubbel included<br />
in his collections of 1925 and 1938, and they are<br />
also in the collection I produced in 1984.<br />
Moreover, Kubbel's particular selection comes as<br />
no surprise. <strong>We</strong> know the characteristics he<br />
valued in a study, and he clearly picked the ones<br />
he considered to be the best of the bunch for Dr<br />
Lasker.<br />
How has the printed edition turned out The format<br />
is neat, though the text is not entirely free<br />
from typographical slips. The omission of an<br />
important echo variation from the solution to<br />
study <strong>No</strong>. 12 seems rather strange: did Kubbel<br />
really leave it out If so, an editorial note would<br />
not have come amiss.<br />
Timothy Whitworth<br />
viil996<br />
Zadachy i etyudy ("Problems and Studies") <strong>No</strong>s. 9<br />
(ISBN 5-7443-00-20-1, 60 pages) and 10 (ISBN<br />
5-7443-0028-7, 68 pages), "1995". [<strong>We</strong> expected<br />
an ISSN number.] Most readers will have heard of<br />
the chess composition series of eight occasional<br />
914
journals with an unusual international flavour<br />
published in Leningrad between 1927 and 1930,<br />
when the series abruptly ceased (see EG 72/<br />
Kasparyan obituary) because contacts by the<br />
public with the world outside the USSR were<br />
deemed suspicious and to be strictly controlled.<br />
The series, and its main protagonist Zalkind, were<br />
quick victims. In 1995 the interrupted series was<br />
resumed, though so far contributions are only in<br />
Russian. The editorial of <strong>No</strong>.9 promises to continue<br />
the tradition of publishing articles emphasising<br />
aesthetics, theory and history.<br />
Study-related article topics of <strong>No</strong>.9 include:<br />
L.B.Zalkind (8 pages), by Gulyaev/Grin; "From<br />
masterpiece to masterpiece" (4 pages), by<br />
Razumenko; and 7 originals.<br />
In<strong>No</strong>.lO:f Kasparyan (8 pages); award in<br />
<strong>VII</strong> International of "Vecherny Peterburg"<br />
(Yu.Fokin); L.Katsnelson - 60! (3 pages); "Bishop<br />
against the knight pair", by I.Bondar, (3 pages);<br />
and 8 originals.<br />
25 chess studies, by IM Leonard Katsnelson, 16<br />
pages, <strong>1996</strong>. In Russian. The text on the 16th<br />
page of this opuscule celebrating the 60th<br />
birthday of this formidable but friendly composer<br />
is a 20-line poem, by the author. Both of<br />
Leonard's brothers have composed. (AJR wishes<br />
that both of his brothers had even been<br />
chessplayers.)<br />
Endspielstudien und Hilfsmatt-Probleme, by<br />
Wladimir Naef.<br />
This privately published 94-page collection of 39<br />
studies and some helpmates by the Swiss composer<br />
has in <strong>1996</strong> again become available. There<br />
appear to be no changes from the book reviewed<br />
in EG&5 in 1986.<br />
Effektives Endspieltraining, by Artur Yusupov and<br />
Mark Dvoretsky, Beyer-Verlag, <strong>1996</strong>. ISBN<br />
3-88805-114-2. 178 pages. In German.<br />
More 'secrets' and 'tips', we are told. Is the<br />
world becoming superstitious that this kind of<br />
sub-title sells The content, which consists of<br />
highly 'practical' positions deeply discussed, is<br />
impressive. A section on the potential of a knight<br />
could be useful to develop study-solving expertise,<br />
but - secrets' The half-dozen studies<br />
included are really incidental. An English adaptation<br />
of Dvoretsky's short chapter devoted to the<br />
rook ending Capablanca vs. Alekhine, New York<br />
1924 can be found as an article in -<br />
American Chess Journal Number 3, 1995. The<br />
contents of the 125 pages of this serious journal<br />
might be called a set of widely assorted essays on<br />
chess selected to appeal to the addict who now<br />
plays only sometimes. After this issue the<br />
publisher will no longer be American Chess Journal,<br />
Inc., but H3 Inc. Christopher Chabris will<br />
remain Chief Editor.<br />
Karpov's Endgame Arsenal!, by A.Karpov and<br />
E.Gik, <strong>1996</strong>. ISBN 1-88-3358-20-5. 147 pages, in<br />
English. "The R&D Publishing Endgame Series<br />
RD-010", Manasquan, New Jersey, USA.<br />
Translated from the German, but the original<br />
must have been in Russian.<br />
The contention is that studying studies improves<br />
play, so one would have thought that World<br />
Champion Karpov would have composed at least<br />
one study - but apparently he has not. (See elsewhere<br />
for a study composed by Igor Zaitsev,<br />
Karpov's sometime trainer.) The book is packed<br />
. with studies, but it is hard to spot any system<br />
behind their selection apart from all being<br />
miniatures. The link with the practical examples<br />
seems based on use of the word 'study-like'<br />
rather than anything content-related. After the<br />
reader has shuddered on meeting 'Barbe' instead<br />
of 'Barbier' (many such name mis-spellings<br />
betray gross ignorance on the part of everyone<br />
from authors to publisher), there is only partial<br />
compensation in the inclusion of 20 of Karpov's<br />
own tournament endings (all 'study-like', naturally):<br />
these are indubitable masterpieces in their<br />
own right, but they are given only 24 pages.<br />
There is no index and there are neither acknowledgements,<br />
bibliography nor list of references.<br />
My twenty favourites, by Jan van Reek. 1994. 24<br />
pages. This is the second edition of the selection<br />
of the author's studies presented using assorted<br />
typefaces.<br />
Fit im Endspiel, by Bemd Rosen. 1995. ISBN<br />
3-9804955-1-5. 114 pages. In German.<br />
The book is the official endgame training book of<br />
the German Chess Federation. It comprises 16<br />
'lectures', in each of which a simple 'theme' or<br />
idea is chosen: the choice is good and practice<br />
examples are many. The 'reinforcement' learning<br />
principle is systematically implemented. Unless he<br />
is already expert, the reader can quickly find his<br />
own level - and make progress. Excellent!<br />
Spannende Eindspelen, by Siep Postma. 1993.<br />
ISBN 90 6216 020 4. 64 pages. In Dutch. Aimed<br />
at youth (the book is part of a series) this is a<br />
well-presented mixture of instruction and informative<br />
entertainment.<br />
Mastering the Endgame, <strong>Vol</strong>ume 2 - Closed<br />
Games, by Shereshevsky and Slutsky. 1992. ISBN<br />
0 08 037784X. 240 pages.<br />
The book deals in depth with families of practical<br />
endgames that arise from certain closed openings.<br />
This is good classical stuff based on classes of<br />
pawn structure. It grows naturally out of master-<br />
915
pieces of the past like Reuben Fine's Ideas<br />
Behind the Chess Openings, not to mention<br />
Philidor's 'soul of the game', or so it seems to<br />
this reviewer.<br />
Klassische <strong>We</strong>ltmeister, by Jan van Reek, <strong>1996</strong>.<br />
ISBN 3-9804896-1-2. 160 pages. In German, van<br />
Reek leads us through chess history with endgame<br />
examples from Lucena through Stamma to the<br />
modems, as far as Euwe. There are many<br />
complete games, with the endgame phase annotated.<br />
Voorlopers en Tijdgenoten van Steinitz, by Jan<br />
van Reek, <strong>1996</strong>. ISBN 90-74827-15-2. 102 pages.<br />
In Dutch.<br />
Siegbert Tarrasch, by Jan van Reek, <strong>1996</strong>. ISBN<br />
90-74827-20-9. 56 pages. In Dutch.<br />
Emanuel Lasker, by Jan van Reek, <strong>1996</strong>. ISBN<br />
90-74827-16-0. 88 pages. In Dutch.<br />
These three books, components of a formidable<br />
series, take the reader through familiar historical<br />
territory, with history and games. All are subtitled<br />
'chessplayers as endgame artists', so the choice of<br />
games does stress endgame content, and each<br />
concludes with a section on eponymous studies<br />
and related material. Impressed by the 50-item list<br />
of references in the 'Lasker' volume we thought<br />
to check the accuracy of the comment to the<br />
well-known piece-less piece by Lasker and Reichhelm<br />
[....], which reads reads: ' .... Manchester<br />
Evening News ...' Alas, Lasker's action-packed<br />
column there appeared in the year 1901 only: the<br />
'by E.Lasker' position was published on 10ivl901<br />
with the f-pawns on f5 and f6 in the diagram, not<br />
f4andf5.<br />
Pawn Promotion (the diskette), by Harold van<br />
der Heijden, <strong>1996</strong><br />
Surprise in composition brings joy; in play,<br />
misery. Underpromotion to rook or bishop has<br />
that element of the unexpected, and 1 was pleased<br />
to be given the opportunity to examine a computer<br />
disk containing two such files - games and<br />
studies - as well as the necessary programs to use<br />
them. The experience was not entirely satisfactory,<br />
my 'disk-content' being more with the<br />
medium than the message.<br />
The software supplied is a small subset of the full<br />
NicBase programs. The positions can be<br />
examined, but not augmented or re-arranged permanently.<br />
Neither analysis nor printing is possible.<br />
The index of positions shoots by at about<br />
100 titles a second, making it almost impossible<br />
to stop at a desired point, and incrementing via<br />
the mouse is difficult because the slightest<br />
repositioning skips several pages. The list is alphabetical<br />
for about the first 80%, and after that,<br />
apparently in sequence of augmentation. The<br />
programs have excellent sorting facilities, and the<br />
whole file can be resequenced rapidly, but only<br />
temporarily. It would have cost nothing to supply<br />
the file fully sorted. A substantial "Help" file is<br />
provided, but that is for the fall NicBase, and<br />
here adds more confusion than clarity. I find it<br />
mildly irritating that checks are not indicated (a<br />
throwback to the early computer days when this<br />
was not an option). The files do not appear to be<br />
accessible from ChessBase, although for all I<br />
know software may exist to facilitate such<br />
promiscuity.<br />
On the positive side, the search and sort facilities<br />
are impressive. These are designed for handling<br />
games, but van der Heijden has used the field<br />
allocated for the name of Black as the depository<br />
of the GBR code. It is a simple matter to select<br />
all positions of a kind, by a particular composer,<br />
by year (or range of years), or even by some<br />
positional features. The selection can be sequenced,<br />
but all keys are sorted in the same direction,<br />
ascending or descending. Thus the list can<br />
be alphabetical by composer and by earliest year<br />
first, but not by composer and latest year first.<br />
The full NicBase, costing something around £100,<br />
is needed to make the most of this disk. I did not<br />
find the restricted version as useful as a printed<br />
text for studies, but I was happier using it for<br />
games, when 1 had a greater need to navigate<br />
within the same item.<br />
The game file includes all 27 known examples,<br />
mostly banal, and some of dubious authenticity.<br />
The earliest is the match game between<br />
Guretzky-Cornitz and Neumann played in <strong>October</strong><br />
1863 and first published in Neue Berliner Schachzeitung<br />
March 1864. As in many cases, only the<br />
final moves are given. One of the more interesting<br />
is:<br />
Kholmov vs. Ehlvest, played in the USSR Championship<br />
semi-final at <strong>Vol</strong>godonsk, 1983.<br />
b6c8 0400.12 3/4. position after Black's move 71<br />
916
Play proceeded: 72.Ral hlB 73.Rfl.Rh8 74.Rf7<br />
Re8 75.Kc5 e5 76.Kd6 Bb7, and White resigned.<br />
Only these moves are given, and they are unhelpfully<br />
numbered 1-5 (perhaps a NicBase<br />
limitation). The game score, published in<br />
Shakhmatny byulleten 1984 no. 1, breaks off after<br />
the 42nd move with 'and Black won'. The<br />
unusual finish appears to have left no impression<br />
on the magazine's Russian editor.<br />
More than 1500 positions are in the studies file.<br />
They are a subset of the more than 40,000 compositions<br />
in the van der Heijden database. This<br />
prodigious task must have driven Harold's friends<br />
and relations, if not himself, to despair at times,<br />
and I am almost ashamed of asking for more. In<br />
addition to the date and place of publication, I<br />
would like to have seen his sources for the<br />
positions. Obviously he could not spend much<br />
time authenticating his data. Simple arithmetic<br />
shows that had he spent 30 minutes on each study<br />
he would have needed ten years to build up his<br />
file, assuming he had nothing else to do in his<br />
life. It would be helpful to know if a secondary<br />
source had been used, since some of the data are<br />
questionable. Let me demonstrate.<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10455<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10456<br />
hlg3 1300.24 4/6<br />
Win<br />
l.Qxg5+ Rxg5 2.rxg5 h2 3.g6 h4 4.g7 Kh3<br />
5.g8B. This is given as Jaenisch, Deutsche<br />
Schachzeitung 1850. It is perhaps splitting hairs to<br />
say that Deutsche Schachzeitung ceased<br />
publication in 1848, and that the study is in<br />
Schachzeitung, a periodical which, twenty years<br />
later, was renamed Deutsche Schachzeitung. Van<br />
der Heijden says that this is one of twins, the<br />
second involving underpromotion to knight. That<br />
continues: 5.g8S Kg3 6.Sf6 KB 7.Sd5 Ke4 8.Sc3<br />
Kd3 9.Sb5 Kc2 IO.Sxa3 Kb2. However, Jaenisch<br />
gave three positions. In the first only a bishop<br />
wins, in the second a knight, and in the third,<br />
neither. Here are the second and third.<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10457<br />
glal 0400.21 4/3<br />
Win<br />
This is cited as J. Kling, Illustrated London News<br />
1863. l.b8B, winning on move 23. l.b8Q, is<br />
given as a dual, with no analysis. Was this noted<br />
by contemporaries It is hard to say, because the<br />
study was not in Illustrated London News for<br />
1863, nor in The Era, nor in The Field, nor Cassell's<br />
<strong>We</strong>ekly Family Paper. Neither was it in the<br />
only English chess magazine of the time, Chess<br />
Player's Magazine. LL.N. for 1862 is equally<br />
barren.<br />
hlg3 1300.35 5/7<br />
Win<br />
917
<strong>No</strong> 104S8<br />
matrix. Van der Heijden gives 5 moves of<br />
solution. Berger goes to 7 with bishop and 10<br />
with knight. When offering two other positions<br />
Harold does give the correct date of 1890 for the<br />
book.<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10460<br />
hlg3 1300.24 4/6<br />
Win<br />
All three begin: l.Qxg5+ Rxg5 2.fxg5 h2 3.g6 h4<br />
4.g7 Kh3. For the first, the one given by van der<br />
Heijden, the composer gives no Anther moves,<br />
simply saying that it is obvious that a knight only<br />
draws but a bishop wins easily. <strong>No</strong>r does he give<br />
analysis for bishop in the second position, just<br />
saying that Black's king gets to al and draws<br />
easily. A knight promotion is needed to win (he<br />
says), continuing: 5.g8S Kg3 6.Sf6 Kf3 7.Sd5<br />
Ke2 8.Sxb4 Kd2 9.Sd5/i Kd3 (Kc2;b4) 10.Sb6<br />
Kc3/ii ll.Sc4 Kb4 12.Sa3 or 12 Kh2.<br />
i) 9.Sc6 Kc3 10.Sa5 (b4,Kc4;) Kb2 11.b4/iii Kxa2<br />
12.b5 Kbl 13.b6 a2 14.Sb3 Kb2, and 15.b7 Kxb3<br />
16.b8Q Kc2, or 15.Sal Kxal 16.b7 h3.<br />
ii)Kc2 ll.Sc4Kbl 12.Sxa3+.<br />
iii) ll.Sc4+ Kxa2 12.b4 Kb3 13.Sxa3 Kxb4.<br />
In the third position neither bishop nor knight<br />
wins, says Jaenisch. Again he gives no analysis,<br />
but says that the best White can do is reach one<br />
of these two drawn positions.<br />
a5b7 0001.10 c8.a7 3/1 c6b8 0010.11 d5.a6a7 3/2<br />
<strong>No</strong>w look at the following, stated to be Berger,<br />
Endspiele 1889.<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10459<br />
m<br />
blc3 0004.33 5/5<br />
Win<br />
l.Sd5 Kc4 2.Sxf6 Kxb4 3.Sd5 Ka4 4.f6 Se4 5.f7<br />
Sd6 6.flBR.<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10461<br />
blb4 0004.22 4/4<br />
Win<br />
l.Sd5+ Ka3 2.f6 Se4 3.f7 Sd6 4.f8R. This is<br />
indexed as a version of the above. Curiously,<br />
neither of them appear in the 1890 book. The first<br />
is said by Berger, Probleme, Studien und Parties<br />
1914 p. 133, to be a 1912 version of the following,<br />
the position that really was given in 1890.<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10462<br />
hlg3 0400.24 4/6<br />
Win<br />
Berger makes it clear on p. 26 of his book (dated<br />
1890, of course), that he is giving a version (or,<br />
more precisely, three versions) of the Jaenisch<br />
918
ala3 0404.23 5/6<br />
Win<br />
By now it will come as no surprise to learn that<br />
this position is on the disk, where it is attributed<br />
to J. Mayer. Somewhere a transcription error has<br />
crept in. Berger gives: 1 .Ra8+ Ra4 2Rxa4+ bxa4!<br />
3.f6 Se4 4.f7 Sd6 5 f8R.<br />
Finally, let's look at a study where position,<br />
source, and date are correct.<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10463 F.Healey,<br />
Chess Monthly 1890<br />
h6e5 3020.42 7/4<br />
Win<br />
Healey's solution: l.fSB Qhl + 2.Kg6. <strong>No</strong>t<br />
l.fiBQ Qh7+; !.Kg6(Kg7) Qxf7+; I.Bf4+<br />
Kxf4 2.f8Q+ Ke3. NicBase gives much more:-<br />
l.ftB Qhl 2.Kg6 Qh8 3.Bd6 mate. <strong>No</strong>t l.f8Q<br />
Qh7+ 2.Kg5 Qh5+ 3.Kxh5 drawn, nor l.Bf4+<br />
Kxf4 2.f8Q+ Ke3 3.Qf1 Qc6+ 4.Kg7 Qxc5 5.Bc4<br />
Kd2 6.QQ+ Kc3 7.Qel+ Kb2 8.Qe2 Kbl.<br />
Where did this originate<br />
Harold van der Heijden has produced a superb<br />
resource, but at the moment its studies should not<br />
be quoted without verification. The task of those<br />
who would like to help him perfect his mission<br />
would be made easier if he stated his sources.<br />
Here is an example of what I mean. A study is<br />
given as Berliner Schachzeitung 1858, but no<br />
periodical of that title existed before 1896.<br />
Probably Schachzeitung is intended, but searching<br />
that, at first, is fruitless, creating the suspicion<br />
that some other magazine is correct. As the title is<br />
wrong we can suppose that Harold used a<br />
secondary source, and other details might also be<br />
incorrect. However, the composition was on the<br />
cover of the April issue, and as such missing from<br />
most bound volumes. The reader needs to look in<br />
the March 1859 number for the analysis, by<br />
which time the magazine was located in Leipzig.<br />
Ken Whyld<br />
July <strong>1996</strong><br />
Another instalment of AJR's SNIPPETS<br />
1. Postscript to f Kasparyan obituary in<br />
EG/20(p79O)<br />
While browsing among the riches on the shelves<br />
of the van der Linde-Niemeijer collection in the<br />
Dutch Royal Library in The Hague I came across<br />
the issue of the Russian "64" dated 30vil931. On<br />
pi81 there is a half-page article couched in official<br />
language. It 'explains' the introduction of<br />
restrictions on Soviet chessplayers contributing to<br />
foreign chess magazines- and lists two magazines<br />
that are 'approved': the British Chess Magazine,<br />
and L'tchiquier. <strong>No</strong>w Troitzky had been<br />
contributing to the latter for some time - but his<br />
input abruptly broke off in mid-1931. Why <strong>We</strong><br />
are now in a position to make an informed guess.<br />
Two facts are relevant. The "64" article did not<br />
say that any soviet chess personality was allowed<br />
to communicate directly with the BCM or the<br />
Belgian magazine - that has never been the way<br />
in xenophobic Russia. <strong>No</strong>, the arrangements,<br />
indeed the requirements, were very different: a<br />
Soviet citizen wishing to send to either destination<br />
was obliged to submit his text and request to<br />
VOKS (M.Barulin), where, for example, the service<br />
of 'translation' (which to a nervous Russian<br />
would certainly imply monitoring, if not 'censorship')<br />
would be available. The article is signed<br />
by Eremeev, the responsible representative of<br />
VSFK SSSR, and by E.Rossels, chairman of the<br />
Commission for Chess and Draughts. The other<br />
fact of relevance is that Krylenko had offered an<br />
apartment in Leningrad to Troitzky, and Troitzky<br />
had accepted. So Troitzky was indebted to<br />
Krylenko and may well have asked the latter's<br />
advice. As a denizen of the corridors of power<br />
Krylenko would have been well placed to give<br />
good advice to his protege*. Krylenko must have<br />
had more than an inkling that sooner rather than<br />
later the paranoid political screws would be<br />
further tightened (rather than loosened), in which<br />
case his private advice to Troitzky would have<br />
been: for your own good sever all contacts with<br />
the <strong>We</strong>st. Of course, there is no way to know<br />
how much, if any, of the foregoing would have<br />
been known to Troitzky when he and Kasparyan<br />
had their one face-to-face conversation.<br />
919
2. A 7-year mystery now largely solved<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10464 G.van Breukelen,<br />
Schakend Nederland (<strong>No</strong>.2207 iii 1990)<br />
d6h8 0057.25 6/9<br />
Win<br />
Solution: I.Bg7+ Kg8 2.Sxf6+ Kxgl 3.SH5+, and<br />
then as below.<br />
Version in EG102.2 (vil991) p875, and elsewhere<br />
d6h7 0047.24 dlb4g8a6g5.d7g3c3c5e3h6 5/8.<br />
Solution: 7.5/6+ Kg7 2.SH5+ Kg6 3Bc2+ Kxh5<br />
4d8Q S/7+ 5.Ke6 Sxd8+ 6.KJ5 e2 7Be4 elS<br />
8Bd5 c2 9.Be4 clS !0.Bb5 Sc7 ll.Ba4 wins.<br />
The composer of this fine study (better in the<br />
more economical 13-man setting), which exists in<br />
more versions than the two quoted above, is the<br />
Dutch composer Gijs van Breukelen, who<br />
demonstrated it (reports Harold van der Heijden<br />
in a 1993 issue of EBUR) as an example of his<br />
own work at a meeting of ARVES held in 1992 in<br />
Delft. The position with author's name was already<br />
in Schakend Nederland of iii 1990 as an<br />
original in van Reek's regular studies column.<br />
The composer said at the ARVES meeting that he<br />
had composed it in the mid-1970s, and shown it<br />
to several friends (Gerardus Rol was one), but<br />
had neither sent it for publication nor entered it<br />
for a tourney. Having somehow penetrated the<br />
player circuit (cf. the Saavedra story elsewhere in<br />
this issue) it circulated rapidly, acquiring journalistic<br />
colour en route through being associated<br />
either with a (totally fictitious) Ukrainian tractor-driver,<br />
or with a very specific (but equally<br />
spurious) game between leading masters. (Cf. the<br />
Saavedra story - again.) The late IGM Tal was<br />
one of the active propagators, but when asked he<br />
claimed he could not remember who had first<br />
shown it to him. It was contributed by Dutch<br />
journalist Jules <strong>We</strong>lling to the Dutch club<br />
magazine De Klokketoren before 1980, reported in<br />
the Swiss Die Schachwoche in 1991, subsequently<br />
in the Spanish magazines Jaque and Ocho x<br />
Ocho, and again in Chess Monthly for viil996.<br />
Two trivial questions remain: how the position<br />
was published, apparently without the composer's<br />
knowledge, as an original over 6 years ago in the<br />
pages of Schakend Nederland; and why, following<br />
the appeal in EG 102. /, no Dutch reader of EG<br />
drew our attention to the fact! The composer<br />
(b.1946) has had tourney successes, among them<br />
4th prize in Schakend Nederland s 1990 informal<br />
tourney (van Reek's award makes no mention of<br />
<strong>No</strong>.2207), though he seems never to have<br />
bothered to compete in FIDE Album selection<br />
tourneys. Maybe he is simply that happy being,<br />
the carefree composer (Mike Bent is another)<br />
careless of the publicity his studies may earn.<br />
(The world-wide publicity could not have been<br />
achieved by orthodox means!) Such composers,<br />
with little or no interest in (even, perhaps,<br />
blissfully ignorant of) the dry, scholarly niceties<br />
of authorship, authenticity, originality and<br />
provenance - are the salt of the earth. Their<br />
<strong>We</strong>ltanschauung is one with which it is not difficult<br />
to empathise - even to the point of envy<br />
and admiration.<br />
Unless there are corrections or additions to our<br />
report, and if the composer does not mind being<br />
called mischievous, we sign off by sending him<br />
our belated greetings and congratulations, applauding<br />
his motives, and eagerly looking forward<br />
to enjoying the output of the next generation of<br />
Dutch mischief-makers!<br />
3. <strong>No</strong> 10465 Gerhard W.Jensch<br />
Zurcher Tagesanzeiger, 1963<br />
b5b8 3104.00 3/3<br />
Draw<br />
All the discovered checks and other sensible<br />
moves - fail! Some do so because Black can (eventually)<br />
capture a loose white knight with check.<br />
Only the suicidal l.Sc5!!! works. J...Qxc5+<br />
2Ka6+ Kc7 3.Rb7+ Kd6 4.Rb6+ Kd5 S.RbS<br />
Sb4+ 6.Ka5 Sc6+, and at last White has a choice:<br />
6.Ka6, or 6Ka4.<br />
The conjecture that jewels languish in obscure<br />
chess columns gains further support.<br />
920
4. Neural network parallel computing, by<br />
Yoshiyasu Takefuji, Kluwer Academic Publishing,<br />
1992. ISBN 07923-9190-X.<br />
This is a rarity in that few books on neural nets<br />
refer anywhere to chess. Here we find discussion<br />
of both the 8 queens puzzle and the knight's tour.<br />
5. Problemist Yuga (The Southern Problemist)<br />
This new (<strong>1996</strong>) Ukrainian magazine for chess<br />
composition is under the leadership of the highly<br />
talented study composer Sergei Nikolaevich<br />
Tkachenko, who is also the magazine's studies<br />
editor and vice-president of the (likewise new)<br />
Association of Black Sea Composers. Among the<br />
collaborators we note the names Yu.Gordian,<br />
S.Kirilichenko, V.Melnichenko, V.Rudenko and<br />
I.Soroka. A study tourney is announced to<br />
celebrate the well-known player M.Ya.Podgaets'<br />
50th birthday. Closing date: 15x97. Dollar prizes.<br />
Address:<br />
"Podgaets-50 JT",<br />
Box 73, ODESSA - 69,<br />
270069 UKRAINE<br />
6. The much-quoted finale of a game:<br />
Alekhine vs. Yates, London 1922<br />
position after Black's move 35<br />
f4h8 0831.77 11/11. WTM<br />
The game concluded: 36.Sf6 gRITS 37.Rxg7 Rxf6<br />
38.Ke5 resigns. <strong>No</strong>thing amiss, except that no<br />
annotation that we have seen mentions the 'thirty-percenter'<br />
swindle 36...e5+!, when 37.Kxe5<br />
gxf6+, or 37.Kxf5() Bc8+, so only 37dxe5!,<br />
wins convincingly.<br />
<strong>No</strong> 10466 E.Melnichenko<br />
Schach, ii96<br />
h8f7 0001.21 4/2<br />
Draw<br />
Solution: Lh7 a3 2.SH6+ KfS 3.S/5 a2 4.Sd4 alR<br />
5.Se6+ K/7 6.Sd8+ Kg6l\ 7Kg8 Ra8 8.h8S+ draw<br />
(Melnichenko), Sonntag stretching it to: Kf6<br />
9.hSf7.<br />
i) Kf6 7.Kg8 Rgl+ 8.Kf8 Rhl 9.Kg8 Rgl+<br />
10.Kf8Rhl ll.Kg8.<br />
8. *C* During the 8th Advances in Computer<br />
Chess symposium ('ACC8') in Maastricht<br />
27-28vi96 Ken Thompson of Bell Laboratories<br />
delivered an invited lecture Topics on 6-Piece<br />
Endgames. It seems that Ken now has access to<br />
computer resources powerful enough not merely<br />
to regenerate the 6-man pawnless endgame<br />
databases first achieved by Lewis Stiller but, for<br />
the first time, to retain the output for subsequent<br />
investigation.<br />
9. From Igor Zaitsev's account of his spell as<br />
IGM Karpov's second in the Philippines during<br />
the latter's eventful match there with Korchnoi,<br />
we learn that Karpov either slept through or was<br />
untroubled by earthquake, typhoon and fire alarm,<br />
housed as they were in a well-built building. ...<br />
Karpov may never have composed anything, but<br />
I.Zaitsev did - it seems that he had to do<br />
something to keep his mind off the hullabaloo<br />
while Karpov dozed!<br />
7. Coincidence<br />
The solutions section of SCHACH comments<br />
(viii96 p79) on a remarkable recent coincidence<br />
of a study duplicated in their own pages in a<br />
mirror version. The earlier is due to New<br />
Zealand's Emil Melnichenko (SCHACH's 13554<br />
in H96), and the later to Gunter Sonntag of<br />
Neuwurschnitz (SCHACH's 13581 in iv96).<br />
921
<strong>No</strong> 10467 Igor Zaitsev, Baguio 1978<br />
h5f5 0140.44 7/6<br />
Draw<br />
Solution: l.Rxh4 blQ/i 2Be4+ Qxe4 3g4+ K-<br />
stalemate.<br />
i) Bxh4 2.Bf7 Kxe5 3.Bg6 Bg5 4.Kg4 Bxe3<br />
5.KD.<br />
On being shown the anonymous study now known<br />
to be by van Breukelen (see SNIPPET <strong>No</strong>.l) 1GM<br />
Karpov is on record as saying that it didn't matter<br />
who had composed it. This seems to be the attitude<br />
of most chessplayers. One might mildly<br />
react by enquiring if the ex-world champion<br />
minds when one of his best games is attributed to<br />
someone else, or indeed to no one in particular It<br />
may not matter to the public at large (the great<br />
majority), or if one is a van Breukelen or a<br />
Saavedra (the great minority), but it matters to<br />
most players and to most composers!<br />
10. The postal round of the current (<strong>1996</strong>-97)<br />
British Chess Solving Championship (organised<br />
by the British Chess Problem Society) includes 8<br />
compositions to be solved - none of them a study.<br />
11. An article in the Dutch English language<br />
magazine New in Chess 4/<strong>1996</strong> rediscovers<br />
Charon's well known verdict that some 25% of<br />
Troitzky's studies are suspect as originally<br />
published. The article carries 23 alleged new<br />
demolitions - 21 of the 'no solution 1 type, and<br />
two quick-mate cooks. The destructive analysis<br />
stems from the use of a 120MHz computer. The<br />
positions are all taken from the Dover partial<br />
reprint 360 Brilliant and Instructive End Games,<br />
the volume in which there are no draws. The<br />
authors are Roberto Cifuentes and Maarten de<br />
Zeeuw, who give as the relevant '360' diagram<br />
numbers: 8,9,1 3, 1 9(cook),3 9(cook),<br />
52,129,141,155,161, 182,184,189,192,201,<br />
203,242,268,273,313, 324,326,359. The authors<br />
propose no rehabilitations.<br />
12. *C* ICCA JOURNAL (International Computer<br />
Chess Association)<br />
12.1 GBR class 0023 - two bishops against knight<br />
An 8-page article by Steven J.Edwards (USA) in<br />
<strong>Vol</strong>.19, <strong>No</strong>.l (Hi <strong>1996</strong>) describes the generation of<br />
this database to the 'ultimate' (ie, not to 'conversion')<br />
criterion, and lists results. The conversion<br />
longest WTM win has 66 moves (known from<br />
Ken Thompson's work in 1983 - see EG74), the<br />
ultimate longest win has 78 moves.<br />
12.2 An article by Herbeck and Barth in <strong>Vol</strong>.19,<br />
<strong>No</strong>.2 (vi!996) describes 'an explanation tool for<br />
chess endgames based on rules'. The rules 'have<br />
to be devised and implemented by hand' but are<br />
then programmed and validated by commenting a<br />
'principal variation'. The examples are 4-man<br />
endings. 'The purpose ... is to show that ....<br />
several methods to generate explanations for<br />
endgame positions can be devised and<br />
implemented, giving a chessplayer meaningful<br />
insights...'.<br />
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